A call to repentance... return to our compassionate God of grace!
If you don't have a Bible handy you can read the text online: Joel 2:1,2,12-17.
The date of Joel's writing is undetermined. Maybe in the 9th or 6th centuries BC. Either way, the prophet Joel is God's mouthpiece calling for God's people to own up to their unfaithfulness and return to God. I suspect that today any pastor preaching Joel's message of gloom and doom would be ignored or ridiculed. However, Joel has a great message for us.
Joel/God is not subtle at all! He presents a very real sense of urgency to return to God. Joel envisions the coming of God at the end of time...so, we are urged to return to God in full - with our whole heart. Are there parts of our heart that we are withholding from God? Are there areas of our life that God longs to come and dwell but we hold God at a distance?
God invites us to open our lives wide to the indwelling presence and power of God, and this is something that we do not need to fear, but rather, this is a God who is "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity."
God is not out to beat us up because of our sin, but rather, God is longing and waiting for us to return to God's loving arms. The grace of God invites us to return to God. Let us turn and run from our sin into the arms of our compassionate God of grace!
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