"Rend your heart", God.

I've been on this kick lately to use words that you don't hear much anymore. I was talking to this woman who is going through a very tough time. This has been a long journey lasting years and I asked her to tell me the last time she felt "radiant". Radiant, that isn't a word you hear much. Pretty, beautiful, gorgeous; now those words I hear. Often, so often they don't seem to hold much meaning anymore. But, RADIANT, now that speaks to something deep that permeates from your soul.

As I looked into God's word I found myself reading through Joel. I'm not sure why, it seems to have a lot to say. Joel 2:12-13 in the New International Version goes like this: "Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all you heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." 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.

As I studied these two verses I stopped on the word "rend" and wondered what this is telling me. I looked it up and it means "to rip or tear into pieces." I thought how odd that God would want us to rip our hearts apart but then I looked at the context the word is used in and it started to paint a word picture for me. In old testament times when someone was grieving to the point of "fasting and weeping and mourning" they wailed, LOUDLY, and publicly ripped their cloths because the grief was so deep. We don't mourn like that in our culture today. No we are polite, quiet and mostly cry in private. This word, "rend", expresses something incredible. God wants our hearts to break for Him. He wants us to reach deep inside and see how much we need Him.

And He is not sitting in heaven angry, thinking 'What dopes, will they ever come to me?' No, he is "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love". When the Bible says "he relents from sending calamity" that tells me that He makes a conscious decision to NOT send bad things my way while He is waiting for me to return to Him. What patience. I pray that I may learn from His example.

May you "rend" your heart to God.
May your heart break for Him as one deeply grieved.
And may you know His peace and His love in your life.