Rend our Heart

Rend Our Heart

Joel 2:12-13

12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.

   Every prophet in the Bible proclaimed a message which included a call for the people to repent.  From Moses to John the Baptist, Jesus and the Apostles the message has been the same:  “Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” - Acts 3:19.

   In every Christian’s life, there are times when repentance is necessary.  Repentance was essential for salvation, and we stray from time to time and need to have our relationship with God restored.  Repentance needs to come from our heart, and we need to recognize when we sin and turn from that sin and return to God.  The sad thing is that we take repentance lightly and we can face the whole thing on a purely intellectual level and never lit it reach our heart.  Repentance of the head is not the same as repentance of the heart.  If we love the Lord as much as we claim, then when we sin it will cause us to be sorrowful.  We should cry to God from the anguish of our hearts, not with dry eyes and calm voices.

   In the Old Testament times it was common for someone to tear (or rend) their clothes when they were expressing great sorrow.  For example, when Jacob thought that Joseph had been killed by wild animals, he “tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days” - Genesis 37:34.  When the Israelites were beaten when attacking the city of Ai, Joshua “tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord” - Joshua 7:6.

   Tearing their clothes was an outward expression of sorrow.  But all through Scripture, God makes it abundantly clear that most people never let their sorrow get down to their hearts.  Isaiah 29:13 tells us how God feels about the sin in people’s lives and their lack of real repentance.  “These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men” Jesus referenced this passage when He confronted the hypocritical worship of the Pharisees in Matthew 15:7-9.

   God has more grace to forgive than we can possibly imagine; but our loving Father expects true repentance.  He’s fully aware of the many ways we sin and fall short of His glory; but until we understand how far we have fallen and genuinely desire to change, we will never appreciate His grace.  Until we humble our hearts and allow His love to wash our hearts clean again we can never experience His “times of refreshing.”  Until repentance gets into our hearts, we will never know the joy of restoration. 

Stephen Cram                                                                            June 30, 2013             

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. Colossians 2:8