God wants to hear your heart.

上帝要听你的心声。

Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the  your God, for he is gracious and compassionate.Joel 2:13

你们要撕裂心肠，不撕裂衣服，归向耶和华你们的上帝；因为祂有恩典，有怜悯。-约珥书2章13节

In many cultures, loud weeping, wailing, and the tearing of clothing are accepted ways of lamenting personal sorrow or a great national calamity. For the people of Old Testament Israel, similar outward actions expressed deep mourning and repentance for turning away from the Lord.

在许多文化中，人们会以大声哭泣、哀嚎、撕裂衣裳来宣泄个人痛楚或面对重大国难。旧约时代，以色列百姓也以类似的行为，来表达他们对于远离上帝的哀伤和悔改。

An outward demonstration of repentance can be a powerful process when it comes from our heart. But without a sincere inward response to God, we may simply be going through the motions, even in our communities of faith.

悔改的外在表现若是发自内心，可以令人感到震撼，但若没有从内心诚恳地回应上帝，即使是在基督徒当中，也可能只是做做样子而已。

After a plague of locusts devastated the land of Judah, God, through the prophet Joel, called the people to sincere repentance to avoid His further judgment. “ ‘Even now,’ declares the , ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning’ ” (Joel 2:12).

当犹大境地遭蝗虫吞噬，上帝透过先知约珥呼吁百姓虔诚地悔改，以免受到上帝更多的审判。“耶和华说：‘虽然如此，你们应当禁食、哭泣、悲哀，一心归向我。’”（约珥书2章12节）

Then Joel called for a response from deep inside: “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the  your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity” (v. 13). True repentance comes from the heart.

接着，约珥呼吁百姓由内心深处回应：“你们要撕裂心肠，不撕裂衣服，归向耶和华你们的上帝；因为祂有恩典，有怜悯，不轻易发怒，有丰盛的慈爱，并且后悔不降所说的灾”（13节）。真正的悔改，需要发自内心。

The Lord longs for us to confess our sins to Him and receive His forgiveness so we can love and serve Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

上帝渴望我们向祂认罪以获得祂的赦免，使我们可以尽心、尽性、尽意、尽力地爱祂并服事祂。

Whatever you need to tell the Lord today, just say it—from the heart.

不管你今天需要对上帝说什么，发自内心地说吧！

Lord, please give me a heart of repentance

to see myself as You do. 

Give me the grace to respond to 

Your merciful call for change.

 主，求祢给我一颗悔改的心，
好让我用祢的眼光看待自己。求祢赐给我恩典，
使我能够回应祢期望我改变的慈声呼唤。

Read:Joel 2:12-17New International Version (NIV)

Rend Your Heart

12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart
    and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
    and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
    and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
    for the Lord your God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
    declare a holy fast,
    call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people,
    consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
    gather the children,
    those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
    and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
    weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.
    Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

约珥书 2:12-17Chinese Union Version Modern Punctuation (Simplified) (CUVMPS)

劝以悔罪归诚禁食哭泣

12 “耶和华说：虽然如此，你们应当禁食、哭泣、悲哀，一心归向我。 13 你们要撕裂心肠，不撕裂衣服，归向耶和华你们的神，因为他有恩典，有怜悯，不轻易发怒，有丰盛的慈爱，并且后悔不降所说的灾。 14 或者他转意后悔，留下余福，就是留下献给耶和华你们神的素祭和奠祭，也未可知。

命定日集会禁食自洁

15 “你们要在锡安吹角，分定禁食的日子，宣告严肃会。 16 聚集众民，使会众自洁，招聚老者，聚集孩童和吃奶的，使新郎出离洞房，新妇出离内室。 17 侍奉耶和华的祭司要在廊子和祭坛中间哭泣，说：‘耶和华啊，求你顾惜你的百姓，不要使你的产业受羞辱，列邦管辖他们。为何容列国的人说：“他们的神在哪里呢？”’

整理：于姊妹