DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 13 April 2023
TOPIC: Our Compassionate God
TEXT: Joel 2:12-17 (KJV)
12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
KEY VERSE:
“And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.”
(Joel 2:13)
DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 13 April 2023 MESSAGE
Manasseh, the son of King Hezekiah was like his righteous father. Taking over when his father died, he abandoned the true God and went on to worship all kinds of idols including the hosts of heaven. He used divination and witchcraft, and made his children to pass through the fire. So, God brought afflictions upon him through the king of Assyria who bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon. And in his affliction, he besought the Lord and humbled himself before Him. God restored him to his kingship in Jerusalem. What a compassionate God!
The call in our passage for genuine repentance demands that people should rend their hearts and not just their garments. The ministers of God are to lead God’s people in such gatherings where fervent prayers are to be made to God with the ministers who should “weep between the porch and the altar” saying, “Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach…”
It is never the intention of God that man should perish. But the fall of Adam corrupted humanity. God saw “that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The world at that time was judged and later the nation of Israel came into being through Abraham. Through Jesus Christ, the Seed of Abraham, God has now made salvation available to all men.
True repentance is a genuine sorrow for wrongs done and a strong desire to desist from them. God demands that for genuine salvation to be effected. Lack of true repentance has given birth to many counterfeit Christians, who believe they are saved but are not; hence, they cannot “bring forth…fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:8). The people of Nineveh were saved from destruction when they genuinely repented. God is compassionate; He will forgive and save anyone who sincerely comes to Him in true penitence.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: God’s compassion reaches to depths beyond man’s imagination.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Acts 11-12
