Living in the “in between”

Joel 2:13 "So rend your heart and not your garments, return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and He relents from doing harm."

Repentance. It is a word that is not used a lot in our current culture. I can't think of a time when I have heard someone outside the church say anything about repentance. It is a foreign concept. The problem is, it is a necessary concept. Why don't we hear about it? Because we think that we are always right. We think that the way we think and the things we do and the attitudes we carry are OK. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is our thoughts, actions and attitudes are all wrong without repentance. They are self serving, self centered, self promoting and this is sin. This is falling short of God's glory. None of us can measure up to what He is like and the fact that we can't equal Him shows that we are imperfect, sinful humans.

The nation of Israel was having a tough time. Their nation was being destroyed. Why? It could be as simple as having a divided heart. Verse 12 says: "Turn to Me with all your heart." It could be that they were trying to live double lives. Sure, we love God, but we love this world too. We love God, but we love money too. We love God, but we love these other idols too. That is not going to cut it. It is all God or it is nothing. God wanted all of their hearts. "Love the Lord your God will all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength." There is really no in between here. Because Israel was living in the "in between" God brought some pretty severe judgment.

Kind of scary. I am afraid that I find myself in the "in between" a lot. Sure, I want to love God with all that I am, but then things seem to get in the way…and this is sin. Unfortunately, I think my experience is the experience of many…not just in the world because we know that the world is a self absorbed place with no thought of God, but also in the church. We live with one foot standing on the promises and another foot standing on sinking sand. That is not a safe place to stand. God wants all of us. He gave all that He had. There was no wavering with Him. Jesus said: "I'm all in." There was no in between with God and He asks the same of us.

So what should we do? Rend our hearts. Or hearts need to be torn in pieces. They need to break. We need to see that living in the "in between" for what it is…an affront to God. We need to turn around and return to the Lord, with all of our hearts. And look at what He is like: Gracious, merciful, slow to anger, kind and He actually kind of repents. The word for relent is also translated repent and it simply means that He changes His mind as well. Thank God for that. Thank God that He takes what we deserve and changes it to blessing. Our repentance brings God's repentance. Our change of mind and heart brings God change of mind and heart.

No more living in the "in between".