DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Turning Our Hearts toward God
by Dave Thompson
When studying this passage it became very obvious early in my study that once again the Old Covenant demanded more than the New Covenant. I mean "Rend your Heart" (vs. 13). What exactly does that mean? I understand "Rend your garments" as tearing your clothes in pieces were frequent Old and New Testament actions.
Well let's look at the context of that above phrase. In verse 12, it states, "'Even now,' declares
the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.'" The Lord wants His people to take these verses seriously. When was the last time any of us returned to the Lord with all our heart and did it with fasting and weeping and mourning. I have felt sorry for my sins and the New Covenant expects that we will come to the Lord and ask forgiveness, but not to the level outlined in Joel 2:12.
Have you ever been so sorry for what you are confessing to Jesus that you started to cry, perhaps you didn't eat anything for a day to show your repentance or your emotions were so revved up that you went through a period of mourning? I can't say that I have. Perhaps the New Covenant doesn't specifically tell us to do like Job, who had so many negatives happen that he sat in a pile of ashes (and poured them over his head), he tore his clothes and cried out to God for relief. Or David in the Psalms when speaking about his wrongdoings, he was inconsolable.
Perhaps we should take our sins so seriously that some of those same actions are our actions. If we did take on the above actions mentioned in verse 13, where it states that God promised to allow us to, "...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." Then the author puts in a promise in verses 28-29, "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and the young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." These words could very well be in the New Testament and be meant for us, too (see Acts 2:16-21).
When we feel spiritually empty, turn to this passage and the Acts passage and see that there is more to our relationship with Christ. It is not sin, then ask forgiveness and then sin again. No, are we taking it seriously when God says to repent (turning 180 degrees from how we were going)? Do we take God at His Word and virtually rend our hearts and not our clothes, pray about our transgressions, search the Word of God and be honest about our sins. In doing this, along with requesting help from the Holy Spirit, we can find true victory and a new Christian excitement.
PRAYER
Dear God, help us see the lesson you have for us. It was so well put in the words of Joel chapter 2. Help us to really search for answers when sin seems to be getting the upper hand. You are amazing that you gave us the New Covenant, but don't let us be complacent to sin. Give us the help of your Holy Spirit to guide us and to help us renew our burdened hearts.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVE THOMPSON
I am the administrator of the Daily Worship Blog. My wife, Carla, and I have been attending UALC for seven years at the 9 o'clock service at Mill Run. We have two children, Catherine and Aaron. I have been a Christian for 53 years and am thankful that my Savior has given me two spiritual gifts that have carried me both spiritually and vocationally all my life: they are teaching and administration. I look forward to spending many years here at UALC to serve my Lord and Savior.
Yes to tears at my sin...but even still this convicts to press deeper into Jesus and for me to open self to the Spirits leading more and more.