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| Photo courtesy of worthyofagape.com |
As we've been discussing the subject of true repentance and godly sorrow recently, God has continued to show me various facets of this process and what it looks like in daily life. I stumbled upon this passage of Scripture yesterday while rereading a favorite book of mine, War of Words by Paul David Tripp. God, through the prophet Joel, paints such a vivid picture of what true repentance looks like:
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.” --Joel 2:12-13
Tearing or "rending" of one's clothes was a very common expression of grief in the Old Testament time period (in fact, the Law of God included a commandment that the high priest was never to rend his garments because they were consecrated.) In this passage, God is telling the people of Israel to rend their HEARTS, not their garments.
In essence, God is saying: "Enough of the outward displays! They mean nothing!! I want to see you repent internally, at the heart level. I want to see that that you are truly sincere, and not just going through the outward motions!"
Now, I don't know about you, but this sounds like a painful process! In English, to "rend" means "to tear (something) into two or more pieces; wrench (something) violently; cause great emotional pain to (a person or their heart)."
Ouch. This does NOT sound very pleasant to me!!
Like we've talked about before, repentance is not an easy process--in fact, it can be very painful indeed! But fortunately for us, it is not a process we have to do alone or in our own strength!
True repentance begins with a heart that rests in the completed work of Christ and all the many precious promises that flow out of the gospel. Because of God's great mercy and Christ's victory over sin, we can have the courage to honestly look into our heart and not be afraid of what we might see! We can name sin for what it truly is and be assured of God's complete forgiveness, deliverance, restoration, and reconciliation with Him.
Tripp speaks of a simple principle that one must remember about repentance:
Change has not taken place until change has taken place.
In other words, true repentance is a change of heart that leads to a radical change in your life! If your life is no different than before you took time to consider and pray about your sin, then you haven't truly repented. Period. This is very convicting for me, dear one, and I would imagine it might be for you, too! Let us encourage one another to be honest about our sin with the Lord and truly rend our hearts to be made more like Him!
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