The Gospel for Every Day
Each day, we slow down to align our hearts with God’s Rhythms of Grace.
This series, we turn our ear to God’s Call to Go
This week, we meditate on the theme of Slow to Anger throughout Scripture.
Today’s Scripture
This call to repentance in Joel reminds us that no matter how far someone strays, God’s character remains the same. He remains slow to anger and will never run out of steadfast love.
Reading slowly, let God convict you by his truth and overwhelm you by his grace in Christ.
Joel 2:12-19
12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 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.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
for the LORD your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
assemble the elders;
gather the children,
even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
17 Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O LORD,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
18 Then the LORD became jealous for his land
and had pity on his people.
19 The LORD answered and said to his people,
“Behold, I am sending to you
grain, wine, and oil,
and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you
a reproach among the nations.
Gospel Meditation
Prayerfully meditate on the Scripture you just read using the rhythm Look Up, Look In, Look Out:
Look Up: What does this reveal about God?
Look In: What does this reveal about me?
Look Out: Where is Christ leading me today?
Closing Prayer
From Jonah 3 and Exodus 34
Father,
You did not clear the guilty by turning a blind eye to the evil in Nineveh, but warned them through your reluctant prophet, “Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
You were slow to anger when you gave them forty days to change
You overflowed with steadfast love when you saw their repentance, and relented from bringing disaster
Only you keep steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin
This new day, I turn from evil and call out mightily to you, trusting that you are still slow to anger, and that you still abound in steadfast love.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen
