9 August | EVERYONE
«‘Now, therefore,’ says the Lord, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. 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.’» Joel 2: 12,13
The message of Joel’s book is simple and straightforward. The people of Israel were drunk with rebellion and idolatry. They did not perceive the iniquity of their behavior. They were numb from sin, and, as a result, the great judgments of the Lord were upon them.
In these circumstances, God raises up the prophet Joel with the urgent message we have just read. Not a simple external change is expected, but a conversion “with all your heart”, the surrender of the whole being, including emotions (“weeping and with mourning”) and behavior (fasting).
Real repentance happens on the inside. In Jewish culture, a demonstration of sadness was to tear one’s clothes; a way of saying, “I am so ashamed of what I did, I do not care if my clothes look bad.” Joel knows that it is possible to tear the garments without tearing the heart. For this reason, he stresses that, regardless of where sin has led us, we can return to the arms of God without fear because, as Joel says, the Lord is merciful.
Moreover, genuine conversion, true repentance, is a “gift of God, and an evidence that Christ is drawing the soul to Himself” (Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 381).
Take Action
God wants to seduce you with His love. He wants to move you to conversion by showing you His meek, tender, and compassionate character. Knowing Him will melt you and give you a new heart. So go into the Father’s arms of love right now! Sing “Return to the Lord” (if possible, with your family).