“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
Lord Jesus, Your love for me transcends all understanding. As I survey my personal brokenness, I must confess that it is easy to gloss over my failings, thinking either that my sin is not “that bad” or taking for granted the tremendous price that was paid for me on Calvary. Such behaviors make my repentance nothing more than a religious exercise, an act performed on my part demonstrating a form of godliness but lacking the life-changing results of true repentance. How dare I treat the love shown to me by You with such contempt!
Today, as I make my way to celebrating Your arrival into this world, help me to do a true gut check on my life. Show me every flaw and failing. Grant me a heart that is tender and sensitive to You. Remove the callousness and stubbornness. Help me to live today in a manner that demonstrates how much I truly love You. And where my love is shallow, expose it.
The fact that You describe Your love as abounding reminds me of how poorly I love. I want to love like You love. I want to give like You give. And I want to walk like You walk. Help me to let the world see You in me that all might know just how good You are. I pray this in Your Name. Amen.