Rend Your Heart

Joel 2:13

(The Lord says) “And rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil.”

God is telling us here to do a 180 degree turn. To examine our will, heart, soul, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, conscience, and heart to obtain moral character. This is internal where only God sees; not external where people see. 

 

He urges us to do this now, not later when He has become angry. “Anger” here means “with flared nostrils.” This passage goes on to remind us He is full of love for us.

He is also “relenting” which means “to be moved to pity, comfort, and compassion,” on us who have been evil in His sight. “Evil” here is “displeasing, hurtful, unkind, ethically wicked.” It is the “evil deeds, thoughts and actions of people.” So He has pity and compassion on people who fall short of His standard—which includes all of us.

Father God, I bow before You today to rend my heart.
Please bring to mind my thoughts, words, and actions
which have grieved Your heart. I confess them before You
so I can be released from the penalty of my wrongdoings.
Fill me again with Your joy and presence
so we may enjoy fellowship together once more.

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Sin and the Sea

Micah 7:19

He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, Thou wilt cast all their (our) sins into the depths of the sea.

Our God is a God of compassion, of mercy. He loves us deeply with a love that never lets us go.

This scripture tells us that He is going to bring our bondages, our perversity, depravity, and guilt under His foot. In other words, He captures the things that put us in bondage and makes them subservient to Him.

He goes on to tell us that He hurls our sins, our iniquities and its consequences, into the deepest depths of the sea.

Corrie tenBoom always added a P.S. to this truth. She said, “and then God posts a sign that says, ‘NO FISHING.’” In other words, don’t go trying to dredge up confessed sins. They’re gone. God has stomped them and thrown them in a sea too deep to retrieve. Hallelujah!

Father God, thank You for sending Your Son
to overcome all my sins;
for taking the punishment I deserved.
May I walk in freedom before You
all the days of my life.

Check out my new devotional book Looking Deeper at Amazon.com.

Forgiveness

Mark 11:25

And whenever you stand praying, forgive in you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions.

This scripture is not a nice suggestion. It’s a command. A biding principle.

The next scripture after this one tells you why. It reads, “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions (Mark 11:26).

So we have a choice. Forgive others and receive God’s forgiveness or hold on to the wrongs done to us and cut ourselves off from God’s forgiveness. Pretty straightforward.

People often think they have to feel forgiveness before they make the choice to forgive. In truth it’s exactly the opposite. Forgiveness is a decision. The feelings follow.

Lord Jesus, please bring to mind
any and all people I need to forgive.
I choose to loose them from my judgment
that You may forgive me.

The Lamb of God

Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.

In order for God to forgive sin, He required a life of an animal to be lost in substitution for the person asking forgiveness. This allowed the repentant person to be in unity and harmony with God.

In the new covenant, God didn’t change His mind. In Hebrews 9:22 it says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Instead of an animal sacrifice, God provided us a once-for-all sacrifice for everyone truly sorry for their sin. When we admit our sin and ask for His forgiveness, God grants that reconciliation between us and Him by the blood that Jesus shed willingly on the cross for us.

It’s called in Bible talk, “atonement.” That word means “to cover, purge, make reconciliation.” That’s what Jesus did. He made a way for us to be right with God again.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your willingness
to make a way for us to no longer be at odds
with our loving Father God.
May we never forget all You did for us,
our risen Lord.

Forgiveness

I heard a quote recently that bears repeating. "To refuse to forgive someone is likedrinking poison and expecting the other person to die."Neglected forgiveness, whether intentional or unintentional, tends to eat us up while theother person is unaffected. When we forgive someone, we’re not discounting the wrong. We’re only releasing themfrom our judgment so that when we wrong another, we too, may receive forgiveness.If you’ve ever prayed the Lord’s prayer you’ve asked for that. (Forgive us ourdebts and we forgive our debtors.)Corrie tenBoom called that , “Keeping short accounts with God.”

Go Back Buttons

Remember when computers had "go back" buttons? It would automatically take you back to a previous date and wipe out all the bad stuff you'd loaded on your computer.

God has a go back option. It's found in I John 1:9. It reads, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

That's not all He does. He removes our sins as far as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
I'm so glad He didn't say "as far as the north from the south," because we would eventually run into them again. If we go east around the whole globe, we never meet west at some point, so He's saying we'll never meet up with those sins again.

So, all we have to do is admit our sins to Him and He will cleanse us and make us right with Him. Now that's good news!