What would you do if someone came into your bedroom at 4:30 a.m. and blasted “Charge!” on a trumpet? I bet you would have a hard time going back to sleep! The sound of a trumpet is typically loud, direct and bracing. That is why armies use bugle calls to wake sleeping soldiers. “Hail to the Chief” doesn’t have the same feeling if played on an accordion.
In the following passage we read on Ash Wednesday, God tells the prophet, Joel, that it is time to blow the trumpet because the King is on His way. The trumpet call tells God’s people, “It’s time to wake up! Get your house in order!”
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!”
Joel 2:1a
Is it a good thing or a bad thing when the King shows up? As with many questions from the Bible, the answer is “it depends.” It’s a good thing for his loyal servants. It’s a bad thing if you’re disloyal.
“Truly the day of the Lord is great; terrible indeed—who can endure it? Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.”
Joel 2:11b-13a
What is the Lord looking for when He comes? With whom will He be pleased? As Joel tells us, God is looking for those with repentant hearts — those who, in the words of Joseph Hart’s hymn “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched,” “feel their need of Him.”
Sometimes, even that seems difficult. It can be hard to pull that emotion out of our hearts. Remember that even feeling your need of God is a gift of the Spirit. If you don’t feel it, ask for it. That is part of being loyal to God, asking Him to work in you because you can’t change yourself.
As we enter this Lenten season of repentance and preparation, ask the Lord to show you areas in your life where you need to repent — places where your heart has grown calloused. Ask that He softens your heart and brings you joy in His service. Those are prayers that He loves to answer!
“Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and bounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”
Joel 2:13b
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
