Lenten Devotion #1

Written for the Hollywood UMC booklet

Joel 2:13

Return to the Lord, your God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

When I first read this passage I thought, return to God? But I never left God. And then I thought about it some more. And, oh wait, maybe I did for a while last week when I couldn’t stop worrying about whether or not my overtime was going to come through in this month’s paycheck. Or when I decided I couldn’t wait for my coworker to do what he said he’d do but was slow in doing and did it myself. Or when I spiraled about not knowing if my life was heading in the right direction after all these years. Or when…and the list goes on and on.

I left God when I worried and fretted and took matters into my own hands. When I didn’t trust. When I didn’t believe. When I didn’t have faith. When I got angry. When I got mad. When I got down on myself. When I got down on others. I left Him. But He never left me. Because He is all of those things in this passage by Joel. He is amazing and I don’t tell Him that enough.

He loves me. Despite anything else in the world or anything else that I fear might happen, He loves me. That is the one thing I can hold on to. I cannot push Him away. Do I leave? Yes. But when I come back, He’s always there waiting, arms outstretched, love all around me.

I forget that. Every day. Every hour. Every moment. But then…I remember. I remember that my God is just that, mine. And He loves me so much. So very much.

Prayer:

God, thank you for loving me. No matter what. Amen.