Return With All Your Heart | Joel 2:12-13

A #Lent26 Reflection

Lent is less about performance and more about getting back to our first love, Jesus.

Through the Old Testament prophet Joel, God does not demand polished repentance. He does not ask for spiritual theatrics. He asks for hearts.

In the ancient world, tearing garments was an outward sign of grief. But God says, I’m not interested in fabric. I’m after what’s beneath it.

Lent invites us to examine where we have drifted in our faith. Not in shame, but in honesty. Where has my heart grown divided? Hardened? Distracted? Self-protective?

The tenderness of this passage moves me most:

“For the LORD your God is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He is eager to relent and not punish.”

The call to return is anchored in God’s character, not our own. You and I can return because He is merciful. We repent because He is kind. We come home because He is waiting.

This Lenten season is not about proving devotion through fasting or silence or sacrifice. It is about alignment. It’s about letting our outer practices press our inner life until something that’s hardened softens. Are we walking the walk we talk?

Maybe this Lent your torn heart looks like fasting from noise, fasting from self-justification, or fasting from distraction.

The goal of #Lent26 is not sorrow for sorrow’s sake. It is restoration.

Lent whispers what Joel proclaimed:

There is still time.
Return now.
Return fully.
Return honestly.

I believe if you do that you’ll discover that the God you return to is already leaning toward you.

¹²That is why the Lord says,
    “Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
    Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
¹³Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
    but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
    He is eager to relent and not punish.

Joel 2:12-13 NLT