Those three words “yet even now” are some of the most underrated words of comfort in the gospel.
Read through these various translations:
even now
while there is time
therefore also now
and also now...
We read in the MSG translation, 'But there’s also this, it’s not too late—God’s personal Message!—“Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!” Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. And here’s why: God is kind and merciful.' (I don't recommend this translation as an everyday go-to, but a great tool for common-language bible study/journaling alongside translations like the NIV + ESV)
What a truth to wake up to!
If you are still breathing, if you are still here—there is still time.
Did you grow up in the church but leave your faith behind for various reasons? Curious about Christianity but feel like your are "too far gone"? Committed a sin in the past that haunts you daily, making you feel distant from God? Curious about a higher power but don't know where to start?
'Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.'
Do you know what 'rend' means? It means to tear (something) into two or more pieces.
Tear your heart up—not your garments like they did in the old testemant in a sad attempt to look holier-than-thou—so that He can turn your heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).
You are never outside of God's reach. Hand over your heart and He will set you free. --- “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 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. 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? Joel 2:12-14 ESV
