Continual Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations, May 10 (2:12-13)
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 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 2:12, 13.
THE only times that the Lord is spoken of as repenting, in connection with His own children, are when He turns from judgment to mercy, from chastening to restoring grace. He delights in manifesting the loving-kindness of His heart to His erring ones when they come to Him in self-judgment and contrition of soul, confessing their backslidings. Then His love can flow out freely and He can and will be a Father unto them who thus take the place before Him where they can appropriate His forgiving grace. A broken heart over sin, He will never despise.