Joel 2:13 says, “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” This verse calls us to sincere inner repentance rather than merely outward shows of repentance. Here is a detailed explanation of what it means to “rend your heart” according to the Bible.
1. Rending your heart means sincere, inward repentance
In the Old Testament, the Israelites would often tear their clothes or put on sackcloth and ashes as outward signs of mourning, grief, and repentance (Genesis 37:34, 2 Samuel 13:31, Esther 4:1, Job 1:20). However, the prophet Joel says that God desires something much deeper than external rituals.
Rending your heart refers to having a sincere change of heart on the inside rather than merely making outward displays. It is a heartfelt sorrow over sin, a genuine inward turning from wickedness, and a wholehearted commitment to follow God. Rending your heart means you deeply regret your sins, you hate your evil ways, and you desperately want to be cleansed and reconciled to God (Psalm 51:17).
The Bible contrasts an insincere, external repentance with a genuine, heartfelt repentance in many places. For example, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). God wants us to rend our hearts, not just go through the motions.
2. Rending your heart means allowing your heart to be broken by conviction
To rend your heart is to allow your conscience to be pricked, to let God’s truth break you, and to willingly yield to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. It means welcoming godly sorrow that “produces repentance leading to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10). When we rend our hearts, we do not make excuses, justify ourselves, or harden ourselves to God’s prompting. Instead, we let our hearts break wide open to deep conviction about our sin.
For example, after the sermon on the day of Pentecost, the people “were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). They allowed Peter’s preaching to rend their hearts. This led them to cry out, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). When we let God’s Word convict us deeply, it leads to earnest repentance.
3. Rending your heart means turning wholeheartedly from sin
To rend your heart means turning decisively away from sin, rebellion, apathy, lukewarmness, and anything that separates you from God. It means holding nothing back as you turn toward God and seek reconciliation with Him. Joel called the Israelites to “return to the Lord your God” (Joel 2:13). James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Rending your heart requires turning wholly to God.
This kind of repentance rents your heart away from love of sin and reorients your affections back toward God. It is a dramatic and wholesale shift from wickedness to righteousness, from going your own way to following God’s way. There is no middle ground. You cannot straddle the fence. As Christ said, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). Rending your heart means fully and definitively turning to God.
4. Rending your heart means a humble spirit
Rending your heart requires cultivating a humble and lowly spirit, not a prideful or defensive attitude. With a torn heart, you sincerely recognize the gravity of your sin and you grieve how your actions have offended God’s holy law. Like the tax collector, you cry out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). You approach God with humility, honestly owning the depths of your depravity.
This stands in contrast to the self-righteous Pharisee who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11). His proud heart was hardened to his own wretchedness. To rend your heart, you must be humble and acknowledge the true guilt of your sin. You lay aside excuses, comparisons with others, and feelings of entitlement. You own your guilt before God.
5. Rending your heart means embracing godly sorrow
Rending your heart includes a deep, inner sense of sorrow and mourning over your sin. You feel the weight of how your sin pollutes you, goes against God’s law, and destroys your relationship with Him. Like David after his adultery and murder, you weep bitterly and plead, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love” (Psalm 51:1).
This godly sorrow stands in contrast with merely feeling regret about the consequences of your sin. Judas “felt remorse and returned the thirty silver coins” (Matthew 27:3), but he did not fully repent. To properly rend your heart, you grieve over the evil you have done because you care about honoring Christ and pleasing God. Your sin hurts you deeply. You cry out to be cleansed.
6. Rending your heart means seeking forgiveness and reconciliation
An important result of rending your heart is that you urgently seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. Like the prodigal son, you return to the Father and plead, “I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:21). You recognize that only God’s grace can pardon you, renew you, and reconcile you to Himself.
With a torn heart, you cry out for mercy, cleansing, and reconciliation. You know you are powerless to justify yourself through good works or religious rituals. You rely fully on God’s compassion and grace. You know He is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Joel 2:13). So you seek Him earnestly and plead for Him to wash away your sins.
7. Rending your heart results in changed thoughts, attitudes, and behavior
True repentance is more than talk. Rending your heart causes fundamental changes in how you think and live. You turn away from patterns of sin as the Spirit renews your mind and gives you new desires (Romans 12:2, Ezekiel 36:26). Your attitudes, speech, conduct, and even your inner thought life are transformed by God’s power.
Repentance designed to rend the heart will reshape every dimension of your life. There will be tangible spiritual fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8). You will think, feel, speak, and act differently because God has given you a new heart that loves what is good, right, and pleasing to Him. The way you treat others will change. Hypocrisy will be replaced with spiritual integrity.
8. Rending your heart should lead to reconciliation with others
If we have sinned against a brother or sister, rending our hearts should prompt us to seek reconciliation. Where we have wounded others, we should demonstrate repentance through heartfelt confession, requests for forgiveness, and restitution. As Jesus taught, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).
Rending your heart causes you to make things right with others, just as you seek reconciliation with God. You pursue restored relationships, doing what is necessary to heal what was broken. You replace lies with truth, bitterness with forgiveness, and hatred with godly love. These horizontal reconciliations are fruits of rending your heart before God.
9. Rending your heart is a lifelong process
Our hearts are prone to stubbornness and pride. We are forgetful hearers and hypocritical doers of God’s Word (James 1:22-24). Becoming Christlike requires a lifetime of rending our hearts through ongoing conviction, repentance, and the Spirit’s renewing work. We must regularly examine ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5), confess sins, and turn wholeheartedly to God.
Even after conversion, our hearts grow dull, divided, and calloused if we are not careful. Rending our hearts is not a one-time event but a habitual posture before God. The more we know Him, the more we see the persistent need to rend our hearts as the Spirit deepens conviction, grants repentance, and renews us in His image. Ongoing heart-rending keeps us soft and pliable before God.
10. God graciously receives those who rend their hearts
The good news is that when we truly rend our hearts, God promises to abundantly pardon, restore, and refresh us. He is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Joel 2:13). He will not despise or reject broken and contrite hearts (Psalm 51:17).
Though our sins are as scarlet, He will make them white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). He removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He casts our iniquities into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). Our rending of hearts results in God’s full cleansing as He washes us and welcomes us back into His merciful arms.
Conclusion
Rending your heart is a deeply biblical concept that captures the kind of sincere, inward repentance God desires. It means humbly allowing your heart to be broken by conviction, decisively turning from sin, embracing godly sorrow, urgently seeking God’s forgiveness and reconciliation, and embracing lifelong heart transformation. When we truly rend our hearts before God, He promises to graciously forgive, cleanse, and restore us by His compassion and love.