" 'Even now,' declares The Lord, 'return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to The Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing ..." Joel 2:12-14 (NIV)
In the midst of a description of the destruction of the land and the suffering of the people, Joel tells them to return to The Lord. He says that if they would demonstrate genuine repentance, that God would forgive them and bless them. Tearing their outer garments, a Jewish way of showing grief, was meaningless the heart is broken in repentance and contrition.
When things are going all wrong for us, there is an opportunity for us to turn or return to God. There are those of us who believe that some times, God allows bad things to happen to us in order to get our attention. Only after making a mess of things, trying to handle it ourselves, do we realize that we need God's help. We must learn the error of our ways, confess and repent, and follow His way.
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