Rend Your Heart, Not Your Garments

Joel 2:13(NKJV)

13    So rend your heart, and not your garments;     Return to the Lord your God,     For He is gracious and merciful,     Slow to anger, and of great kindness;     And He relents from doing harm.

What a great passage!

As scripture says "we have all fallen short of the glory of God".  Even those of us who are saved still fall short.  The Apostle Paul told us that would happen. 

So what are we to do?   

Return to the Lord.  Over and over and over again.  We serve a great God who has the following characteristics: He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, very kind, and he relents (cuts us a break).

God knows the struggles we face on a day to day basis.  Having come to earth in the form of Jesus, He knows first hand, not theoretically, but first hand.  Therefore as long as we continue to return to Him we can expect to continue to benefit from His grace and mercy.  We can expect Him to continue to cut us a break, IF……..

We accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of our life and we "rend our hearts, and not our garments".  OK, got the accept Jesus part but what the heck does "rend out hearts" mean?

Think about in the Gospels.  So many times the Pharisees would "rend their garments".  It was all show.  I think this verse simply means be genuine in your surrender to Jesus, genuine in your repentance each time you fall short. 

God's grace, mercy, and continual renewal are there for the asking.  Just rend your heart for Jesus and experience all the rest that God has to offer!