Sunday, December 10
Return to Me
Scripture: Joel 1-3, Romans 16
Joel 2:12–13
12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,
“return to me with all your heart—
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Tear your hearts,
not just your garments!”
13 Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and boundless in loyal love—often relenting from calamitous punishment.
Observation
God’s invitation to His wayward and idolatrous people: “Return to Me with all your heart.” He adds, “Tear your hearts, not just your garments.” It was customary to show one’s sorrow and repentance by tearing your garment. Clothing was rare and expensive so this was a dramatic and costly display of repentance. But it was also possible to put on a dramatic outward show of repentance without any genuine heart change. So God calls for a change of heart: return to me with all your heart; tear your hearts, not just your garments. Mean it.
And God’s response? Joel quotes the most famous self-description of God that is found all over the OT, in the Law and the Prophets: “He is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love.” God welcomes anyone who sincerely turns to Him.
Application
One verse of a great hymn says, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.” When I was college student, we sang that hymn in chapel, and one of my most revered professors told us that described him. I was shocked. But I’ve since learned that it describes me too.
I wander. I’m easily distracted. I’m seduced by idols. I’m self-absorbed.
I wander…and I need to return. Over and over. So today, Joel’s words call me to return to the Lord…again. Today and tomorrow and the next day—for the rest of my life.
“Return to Me.”
I will.
Prayer: Lord, here’s my heart…again. I mean it, as I do every time. You know that I’m prone to wander. I’m so grateful that every time I return, You welcome me…again.