Joel 2:13 says, "And rend your hearts, and not your garment, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil."
The first part of that verse says to rend your hearts and not your garments. What does that mean exactly? I believe that God is speaking of the motivation behind our decisions and actions. Rending your garment is an exterior action. It is an action that is seen by men. We often "rend our garments," yet never render our hearts! Our motivation is to make a show of our works. We publicly do things so that man will see us and think "What a good Christian they are!" or "Look how much they love the Lord!" Now let me add a disclaimer here, it is not bad to have other people think that or to have people see what we do for the Lord! We just cannot allow that to become our motivation! God instead tells us to rend out hearts. This is an interior action. It may never been seen or known by those around us, but it does not go unnoticed by God!! In this verse, He promises that if we rend our hearts to Him and turn unto Him, that he will be gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness toward us! What a promise!
I'm an English major, and I love studying words. I want to define the words that God used to describe Himself in this verse, and may it bless you as it did me!
- Gracious: compassionate, generosity of spirit, marked by kindness and courtesy
- Merciful: treating someone with kindness and forgiveness, compassionate, giving someone something they do not deserve
- Slow to anger: long-suffering, patient
- Great kindness: goodness, showing compassion
God promises to show all things to us when we rend our hearts to Him!
Let's all purpose today to have interior actions, actions that are motivated only by our love for the Lord and our desire to glorify Him! God gives us all a choice, we can live for Him of live for self and others. What do you choose- exterior or interior actions?
All for His Glory,
Brettnay
