“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; and he relents over disaster.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? (Joel 2:12-14)
I love this, “and rend your hearts and not your garments.” When stricken, the Israelites would tear their clothes, but here our great God says to tear your hearts instead.
Do you know what it is to tear your heart, or to have it torn in two? I do. Painfully so. The locusts had come, destroying everything in their path, and my mighty King placed his balm on my near-fatal wounds.
There is none like Jesus. None. I will exalt Him above every other forevermore.
ALL OF YOU LORD. 