Rend your heart
Posted by Jeffrey Smith November 9th, 2015 2,088 Views 0 Comments
Joel 2:13- 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.
God our Father is interested in our hearts, and not our appearance. Tearing your clothes when something happened that was catastrophic or considered a blaspheme was commonplace among the Pharisees. What scripture is pointing out here is that God wants us to focus on Him, and not what we can do. Tearing your clothes cannot change a situation, and in fact it just adds another level for someone to have to deal with you. Sometimes we do stuff in a reactionary manner that adds no value to the situation just so we can be noticed. Our response to things we perceive can be critical in how quickly they can be dealt with.
God is interested in our hearts, and when we see a situation that looks bleak, or fearful, then we know that allowing that situation into our hearts is dealing with it in a Spirit-filled way. We can pour out our hearts to the Lord for repair, but our clothing becomes useless if it has been torn. They turn into rags, and offer no more use.
Our hearts when broken, offer an opportunity to be held, and comforted. God longs to pour out compassion on His children, and when we have something that affects our hearts, you can be assured that our Father is there.
When I was younger and things didn’t go my way, I would often turn to self-destructive behavior that would just compound my problem. I would drink alcohol in excess, or say things to others in anger that I didn't mean. Those things never solved anything, and it only served to point out to others my lack of control, and fears. You see, with Jesus as our savior, we don't need to be in control of anything other than our hearts. We only need to feel the situation and know that because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we are assured of compassion, grace, and resolution through Him.
This scripture says to return to the Lord your God, and that means to give Him your heart. To give Him all the pieces that are broken, so he can mend them like a seamstress would repair torn clothes. The difference is that our healer will put your heart back together with a renewed strength, a deeper bond, and a built up faith. Trust in Jesus, and return to Him when things look bleak. Feel His compassion that will restore every broken part of the what He longs for most, and that is depth of seeing Him within your heart.