Joel 2:12-14
"Even now", declares the Lord, "return to me
with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and
mourning." Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and
compassionate. Who knows? He may turn and have
pity and leave behind a blessing....
We, God's people, have begun to take sin lightly. We don't recognize that God will allow our sins only for so long before He allows us to reap the harvest. We don't think a loving God will let the consequences of our choices hurt us. We choose to see Him as a benevolent, soft hearted person who can be fooled by our false or half hearted repentance.
Joel 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on
My holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the
day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand--
God sent many prophets to Israel and Judah. He sent warnings over and over to the people to lead them to repentance and healing. His people chose to ignore the storm warnings and continued their journey to destruction. God's people can't say they were not warned.
Many times God sent disasters and enemies and disease to try to turn His people back to Him and His ways. Each time, they ignored Him until calamity struck. Then they would come running back, crying, "Why would you allow this, God?" God's heart breaks when His people don't understand or choose to not understand. He will put up with our foolish ways for a limited time. He will not withhold from us the results of our bad choices if what we learn from our mistakes brings us back to Him.
We, God's people, must choose to repent, turn our broken hearts back to Him and worship Him. We must confess even to ourselves the sins we are committing and accept His discipline. He loves us enough to allow us to learn the hard way that our way leads to trouble, His way leads to joy and blessings.
Pray to our great Redeemer that He will open our eyes to our sins. Pray that He will, with loving kindness, show us where we are failing and what sins need to be dealt with. His word tells us that He is willing to forgive our sins but He wants us
to grow and learn and lead others to repentance. He knows our sins and is waiting for us to come to Him seeking forgiveness and healing. He wants us to come to Him with true, heartbroken repentance.
He loves us and is waiting for us to run to Him. He will receive us with open arms. He will scoop us up in His arms and rejoice with us. He will sing over us with great joy. He will comfort those who honestly mourn their sinful ways and will pour out His blessings on them.
"Even now", declares the Lord, "return to me
with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and
mourning." Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and
compassionate. Who knows? He may turn and have
pity and leave behind a blessing....
We, God's people, have begun to take sin lightly. We don't recognize that God will allow our sins only for so long before He allows us to reap the harvest. We don't think a loving God will let the consequences of our choices hurt us. We choose to see Him as a benevolent, soft hearted person who can be fooled by our false or half hearted repentance.
Joel 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on
My holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the
day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand--
God sent many prophets to Israel and Judah. He sent warnings over and over to the people to lead them to repentance and healing. His people chose to ignore the storm warnings and continued their journey to destruction. God's people can't say they were not warned.
Many times God sent disasters and enemies and disease to try to turn His people back to Him and His ways. Each time, they ignored Him until calamity struck. Then they would come running back, crying, "Why would you allow this, God?" God's heart breaks when His people don't understand or choose to not understand. He will put up with our foolish ways for a limited time. He will not withhold from us the results of our bad choices if what we learn from our mistakes brings us back to Him.
We, God's people, must choose to repent, turn our broken hearts back to Him and worship Him. We must confess even to ourselves the sins we are committing and accept His discipline. He loves us enough to allow us to learn the hard way that our way leads to trouble, His way leads to joy and blessings.
Pray to our great Redeemer that He will open our eyes to our sins. Pray that He will, with loving kindness, show us where we are failing and what sins need to be dealt with. His word tells us that He is willing to forgive our sins but He wants us
to grow and learn and lead others to repentance. He knows our sins and is waiting for us to come to Him seeking forgiveness and healing. He wants us to come to Him with true, heartbroken repentance.
He loves us and is waiting for us to run to Him. He will receive us with open arms. He will scoop us up in His arms and rejoice with us. He will sing over us with great joy. He will comfort those who honestly mourn their sinful ways and will pour out His blessings on them.
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