“And rend your heart, and not your garments,
and turn unto the Lord your God…” Joel 2:13
Deep
remorse was often shown by tearing one's clothes. But God didn't want an
outward display of penitence without true inward repentance. It is the heart that God wants changed not
one’s appearance. In 1 Sam 16:7, God illustrated this concerning his call
on David when he told Samuel “look not on
his countenance, or on the height of his stature…man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart.” It’s
the attitude of the heart, not the appearance of the body that God looks upon. A truly penitent heart is called a “broken and a contrite heart.” (Psa 51:17) Such
a penitent rends and rips the recesses of the heart, to discover the
abominations thereof, and pours out before God the diseased and perilous stuff
that is pent up and festering within, and expels the evil lodged within it, and
opens it to forgiveness by way of God’s divine grace and mercy.
Heaven
finds a forgiving ear, when man finds a repentant tongue.
HSAY…Todd
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