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Category Archives: Joel

Joel 2:12-13

12 Mar

12 Yet even now, says the Lord,
    return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,
    and relenting from punishment.

Joel 2:12-13

Dear God, this is the passage from Sister Miriam in Restore: A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation. I don’t know that much about Joel as a prophet or as a book, so I went back to read the introduction in my NIV Study Bible from the 1980s. When describing the overall message of the book, the NIV Study Bible says at the end, “…he describes the day as one of punishment for unfaithful Israel as well. Restoration and blessing will come only after judgment and repentance.”

Oh, God, can I skip the judgment and just go to repentance? Does judgment have to come first? Coincidentally, I was talking with my wife yesterday about standing before you at judgment day. What will you say? How horrifying will it be to stand before you, even with Jesus’s blood covering me to atone for my sins? Will you make an account of my sins, or will you give me a pass? What will that look like?

Then there is our country now. I’ve talked about my conversations with friends about our country and how things are currently going. I have no idea what to make of what is happening at a national level. I know there are plans. I know they are being executed. Will the ultimate results of them be good, bad, or just kicking the can down the road one more election cycle? Will they give the Christian church that has thrown its weight behind the current administration the power it craves and finish off its corruption, thereby causing its collapse and leaving those faithful to you as a remnant? Will the church and the country have to take three steps back in order to start moving forward again?

This all plays into Joel’s call to return to you. All of us start to create idols. Idols of power. Idols of money and what we think is security. Idols of our spouses and our children. I could go on and on. And you will allow our idols to fail. You will allow pain. You will allow us to wander away so that we might come to the end of ourselves. What kind of judgment from you will be waiting for me at the end of my rope? Will it be as Joel describes here, or will it be more like the Prodigal Father who waits for his son to come home after he’s learned how much he needs his father.

Father, my God, I love you and I am grateful for you. Forgive me of my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. Lead me away from temptation. Deliver me from evil. Give me my daily bread–no more and no less. You are the one and only glorious God. Once again, I love you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 12, 2025 in Joel, Restore: A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation

 

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Joel 2:23

20 Sep

Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rain he sends demonstrates his faithfulness. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring.
Joel 2:23

Dear God, I always talk about using peace as my litmus test for how I’m doing with you. Well, I’m apparently not doing well at the moment. I feel overwhelmed by both the amount of work I have to do and the problems I have to solve. I feel anxious about your provision. I sat down last night to start to work on next year’s budget for where I work, and even though you have provided financially and materially through great staff, I find myself being fearful about where the provision will come from next year. I talk a good game and I think people see the different fruits of the Spirit in me, but I’ll bet anyone who really knows me and were to talk to me now would see that peace isn’t there like it should be.

So what am I doing wrong? I’m spending daily time with you in prayer. I’m mixing in some praise and worship. I talk about you to others and I am quick to give you credit for all of the good things you have done this year. But you know what I’m not doing? I’m not trusting you for this moment and the next. I’m trying to solve it all myself. I’m trying to take you place in my life and, ultimately, the glory that you deserve for myself. I am not a humble man. As I look at our organization’s needs for next year, both in terms of services we offer and the resources we collect, my first thoughts are around how I will go out and put this all together and not how you will do it.

Then there is the work in front of me that I have to get done. I am simply pressing too hard and trying to get all of this done in my own strength. I can feel myself conjuring up the energy to do it, and it is exhausting. I’m being manic when I should simply be resting in you and working as unto you.

Father, help me to not try to be you. Help me to let go of my desire to supplant you and to take your glory. Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven through my life in any way that you wish. Give me the strength you need me to have, give us the resources you need us to have, and when I am talking to someone who might partner with us, help me to do it from the perspective of it being about blessing them instead of blessing me. Oh, and I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 20, 2019 in Joel

 

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