““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.”
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 2:12-13
Return to Me
Fasting during Lent is all about returning to the Lord. Sometimes the busy-ness of life can make us less intentional or less consistent in our devotion to God.
Lent is a time to do a heart check. A time to return to focusing on the Lord and renewing our devotion to Him.
Part of the way we do this is with fasting.
Outward versus Inward
In Old Testament times, people in mourning and the pain of fasting would tear their clothes, put on sackclothes and ashes. They showed outward signs of their repentance and sorrow for their wrongdoing.
But the Lord wants change in the inner person. He says that instead of tearing our clothes, we should rend our hearts.
Rend your hearts
We take this Lentin season to turn our hearts inside out. Searching them for sin and repenting. Fasting and seeing if our true desires are pure or if they need an adjustment.
Tearing our hearts open so they can be truly healed by God.
God wants to make our hearts whole
We can trust God with our hearts. He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
Abounding in steadfast love – When I hear that phrase, I picture overflowing love that floods out from our God and surrounds and covers us.
That is that God we serve. One who embraces and heals hearts.
Action Step:
Our Focus today is FASTING!
Fasting: giving up or skipping something in favor of spending time with God. Traditionally, not eating, but can be a fast from social media, television, books, or certain types of food or drink.
Choose something to fast today if you are only fasting on our fasting focus days. If you have something that you are fasting for all of Lent, you can stay with that.
Whenever you feel a desire to eat or do the thing you are fasting, it is time to examine your heart. To rend your heart before the Lord, drawing close to Him and asking Him to heal your heart.
Look at fasting like exercise. You are building the muscle of self-denial. Of refusing to cave to your own desires and to submit to God’s plan. You are practicing achieving a goal.
Prayer:
Dear God, You are the healer of hearts. Help us to examine our hearts to rend them in repentance and come to You for true healing. Give us strength as we fast during Lent this year to deny our cravings and desires and seek You instead. We want to serve you! In Jesus’ name, amen.
