RiverTigress
Moderator
Joel 2:12-13
"Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, 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."
Because we are not perfect, there inevitably comes times when we feel we have failed the Lord. Some of these times we may feel so badly about our failures that we turn away from Him in shame and may feel compelled to attempt all kinds of personal sacrifice to feel like we can earn His acceptance again. But the Lord doesn't want our goods on the altar, but our hearts; and He wants us to turn towards Him, not away, no matter what we might have done.
There is nothing we can do to earn His acceptance and continued love, but the thing is that He never stops loving us in the first place no matter how far we stray. The only thing He asks of us when we have done wrong is to return to His love and repent; and to repent does not mean to suffer on indefinitely in guilt and torment and loneliness and personal sacrifice but just to turn away from and stop doing the thing we know we shouldn't.
"Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, 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."
Because we are not perfect, there inevitably comes times when we feel we have failed the Lord. Some of these times we may feel so badly about our failures that we turn away from Him in shame and may feel compelled to attempt all kinds of personal sacrifice to feel like we can earn His acceptance again. But the Lord doesn't want our goods on the altar, but our hearts; and He wants us to turn towards Him, not away, no matter what we might have done.
There is nothing we can do to earn His acceptance and continued love, but the thing is that He never stops loving us in the first place no matter how far we stray. The only thing He asks of us when we have done wrong is to return to His love and repent; and to repent does not mean to suffer on indefinitely in guilt and torment and loneliness and personal sacrifice but just to turn away from and stop doing the thing we know we shouldn't.
