Daily Light Devotional: Your Word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path (Psalm 119:105)
February 18 2026
Ash Wednesday
Text: Joel 2:12-13
“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God…”
In the days of Joel, the people of God were completely disobedient. And because of their disobedience, the land had been overrun with foreign armies who devoured the land like a horde of locusts (see Joel chapter 1). In the midst of their disobedience, and the devastation upon the land, the Lord says – “return to me with all your heart”. In Deuteronomy 4:5 we are reminded of the great commandment – “love the Lord with all your heart, and with all you mind and with all your strength”. And if we love the Lord we will obey the Lord. Out of the heart flows loving obedience.
Lent is a time to engage in self-examination, to see where our hearts might have gotten off track. And then we repent and return to the Lord. This repentance includes rending our heart, tearing it apart, separating the sinful corruption of our hearts, and returning it all back to the Lord.
This is what Lent is about – dying to the things that cause disobedience and returning to the Lord with a new and right heart so we can bear the fruit of repentance and righteousness. How are you doig? Are you fruitful? Are you overflowing with abundant life? If not – repent and return to the Lord.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for knowing that you want me to be living with a blessed and abundant life. Forgive me for my disobedience, create in me a new and loving heart as I return to you with a broken and contrite heart. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.