Scripture:

Joel 2:13

So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.

Rend Your Heart

A little background: The tearing of clothes in the Old Testament was a physical, cultural act that symbolized intense grief, deep mourning, repentance, or profound spiritual distress.  But like all humanity we can be dramatic, and yet not sincere.   

So, here in Joel 2:13 the Lord says I am not interested in a show, it can't just be a momentary turning, just because you had an emotional response, it has to be something that comes from deep inside, a change that happened in you, not just externally.  

Imagine this, that God is looking for real change, real commitment, that is what "Fear of the Lord" really is, it is this level of commitment, love that never wants to disappoint.   It is the picture of always wanting to respect  and honor your Father in heaven, so much so that you don't want to let Him down.   He says rend your heart, let it be a deep passionate return that causes deep change, not just surface emotion, real movement back toward Him.

Today our God-Shot is that we would examine our hearts and anything that has caused distance from the Lord we should remove, that we should rend our hearts, turn back to Him, allow that revelation to cause real change in us, change the closes the gap.

So what area of your heart has you distant, that you need to rend and turn back, draw near? 

Lord, I pray that we would always be quick to repent, quick to seek you, quick to rend our hearts, to turn back, that we would put off shows, superficial responses and get back to what is important, a real, authentic walk with you, in Jesus' name, Amen!