Have you ever been in a metaphorical pit? A pit so deep that the light’s distant rays are barely visible? You try to claw your way out but every attempt seems to land you at rock bottom. How about a pit that you dug yourself? Where the cares of this world have been more enticing than dwelling in the land of the living? Your hope for any saving is fading. Righteous judgment has come against you and all you feel is defeat. The prophet Joel paints a picture, in chapter one of his book, about swarms of locusts devastating everything in their wake as the children of Judah have turned from the ways of God. There is a call to repent and mourn their sin because their sin had prevented their fullness of worship. The same grain and grapes they would use to offer grain offerings and drink offerings were destroyed by the locusts. What a painful place to be, destruction and lifelessness surrounds them. Just death. “Yet even now,” declares the Lord. He’s not done. This pit isn’t so deep that God’s goodness can’t reach it. “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments”.A true repentance is what God asks for. In our sin and self-destruction and the judgment that comes to wake us from our sinful slumber, God asks for humility and awareness of Himself. Our hearts are to be surrendered and broken, distractions mitigated, with understanding of our humanness and need for something far greater than ourselves.For “the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18) and “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, [He] will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). God blesses those who mourn their sin. He promises comfort. (Matthew 5:4). He doesn’t desire an outward fleeting remorse for the consequences of sin, but an inner grieving of living a life without God. A true repentance. “Yet even now… return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” (Joel 2:13). Yet even now, the character of our God is unchanging. May our hearts break for what breaks His. May we return with humility to His gracious love, yet even now.
