Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Joel 2:13
The key to growing in this life is the ability to humble yourself in the midst of people and situations… There are a lot of things that we face in life which we do not want others to know; however, we are told today in the book of Joel that we must break ourselves down in order to build ourselves up… We enter this life with a mindset which is not of the will of God; when we realize this the enemy tries to keep us thinking that our way of life is okay, when in fact the truth of the matter is that nothing of this world can produce the life altering results we seek… In the Old Testament men would rend (tear) they garments as a sign of disagreement, humbleness or repentances toward God… To rend your garments also would show a sign of pain or an aching within that cannot be contained… Job tore his garments when he received the bad reports about his children and the counsel that had Jesus on trial tore their garments when He confirmed that He was the son of God… In Job’s instance, this was to be considered as a sign of humility and total remorse from whatever actions or choices that had been made… Job didn’t understand why this had happen and he broke himself down before the Lord seeking a (n) answer as to why all these things have happened to his household…
As we understand what it means to rend your clothes, let us also understand that God isn’t concerned about our clothes, but our hearts as we are instructed today by this verse taken from the 2nd chapter of Joel… Joel says, “Rend your heart and not your garments…” This passage reminds us today that it is not about what we do on the outside to show our remorse, but if we really have a broken and contrite heart! It wasn’t about David going to the temple or pleading with God over his son which was bore by Bathsheba, but it was indeed about how he handled the situation within and how he sought God’s face in his most trying time… So many people claim to be upset at their past failures and mistakes, but there heart has not turned from them so they continue down that dark and steep path… To rend you heart is to be completely unease by your failures and to seek a transformation daily! Again, David is a perfect example of a broken heart when he fasted numerous days hoping his son would not perish; but the bible says that when he received word of his sons’ death he cleaned himself up and went into the temple of the Lord… He was broken, he was suffering and he knew that God was is only answer, he wasn’t worried about his stature as King, he wasn’t worried about what men had to say, he was seeking a transformation of character through our Lord and Savior… We too need to stop worrying about what people think, we need to cease from caring about what this person may say if I do this or do that, we must come to the understanding that God is standing and waiting for your broken heart to be brought to him so that he can mend it… As we examine this text today let us continue to examine the life of David…
Remember when God choose David as king He rejected his older brother informing us through the scriptures “that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart…” Joel reminds us of that same truth today, the reasoning behind your actions is what God cares about, and the motivation behind every choice you make is what God takes notice of… In rending your hearts and not your garments, the key to receiving the Love of God is that you must “Return to the Lord…” Like we examined earlier, through his misfortune David returned unto the Lord and in the end God blessed him with another son who he named Solomon… Joel goes on to tell us how God will be toward us when we return to Him; he says, “…for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in Love, and he relents from sending calamity…” No matter what you have endured, things could always be worse… Knowing that God will back off from sending calamity if you turn to Him is good news to hear especially when we accept the fact that we have made many mistakes and fallen short. When our heart is broken we are vulnerable, we have open wounds that the Devil will attack and try to expose… A broken heart can lead us down a path of destruction and cause us to dig a bigger ditch than was originally dug… A broken heart if exposed to the wrong people can leave us vulnerable and abused… That’s why Joel is telling us the character of God, He is the friend to call on, He will hear your prayers and feel your pain, and He can change the outcome and order your steps according to His will and purpose… God desires you to come to Him and know that yes you messed up, but more importantly, that He can heal you, equip you and prepare you for a bigger and better purpose… Tear your heart and expose your pain to the Lord; more importantly though, make sure that you don’t put confidence in man with that broken heart… (Psalms 118:8)
ALL FOR HIS GLORY!
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