“Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.”
Joel 2:12-13
Joel tells us to do two things with our hearts – return and rend. It is impossible to do one without the other. Our hearts can’t return to God without being rent asunder first. ‘Rend’ means ‘to tear’ or ‘split’. Eastern culture often involved tearing your garments as a sign of mourning… but it is a lot easier to do that then it is to tear your heart.
Our hearts are only torn when we accept the truth about ourselves. None of us are as good, as strong, as capable, or as worthy as we think we are. Truth is – every one of us killed Jesus. When, in Acts 2, the people were “cut to the heart” at the revelation that they had crucified the Son of God – they were fulfilling what Joel called for.
Cut hearts bleed and then seek mending. Everyone wants God to bless them, but we don’t all want to cut our hearts and repent. You can’t return until you realize you need to go back. Guilt and shame are the first steps to a right relationship with God.
As you reflect on your year, if there are some things you feel uneasy about… lean into the truth of your own shortcomings. Our hearts need to be rent from time to time.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
Psalm 51:17
Matthew 4:4 #Biblebites