The heart is the most sensitive area of your life. If it stops pumping you stop living. If it is hurt by another person the pain can be unbearable. There are times in your life where you need to renew your heart. You need the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into it, to remove all of the old scars and to make it alive again. God can do that but you need to go through the process.
Joel 2:12-13
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; he relents over disaster.
Return to Me
The prophet Joel relayed to the Jews what God really desired of his people. Return to me with all of your heart. No more halfway doing it. Completely surrender to him by fasting (Read Isaiah 58), weeping, and mourning. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that draws us closer to God by denying ourselves food. It is a declaration to our bodies that we won’t be controlled by our appetite but we are submitting fully to Jesus. Mourning and weeping are outwards signs of the remorse you have in your heart over your sin.
True Conviction
God was tired of Israel going through the motions. He wanted true repentance and a real relationship with his people. Tearing their garments didn’t mean anything. Back in the day of David when someone tore their clothes, it was a representation of what was going on inside. They had been convicted of their sins and were torn up over it. They would then tear their clothes to show their weeping and mourning. The problem is that too many hadn’t gotten too good at the outward signs but nothing was happening on the inside.
Gracious and Merciful
We can return to the Lord because he is gracious. He’s not going to give us the punishment we deserve and he is going to forgive us of our sins. He is also very patient waiting for us to repent. Thankfully he doesn’t give in to knee-jerk reactions and punish us. Instead, his love is unmoveable and overflowing. If you are resisting God return to him today. Repent over your sins and let the Holy Spirit work on your heart. He will renew your heart.