Joel 2:13 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 is not the most common picture of God, I fear. From what I see and hear, people often think God is angry and out to get them in his anger. Yet here we have one verse (of many frankly) describing God as slow to anger and abounding in love. And this verse from the Old Testament, again, people often think God in the Old Testament is different from God in the New Testament. Truth. God has been, is, and will be our loving God eternally. God wants the best for us, and we must do our part in recognizing our own need for Him in the first place. If we can see that we are in need of forgiveness, mercy, and grace, we will be more likely to accept our loving God. When we think we can do this life on our own and have no need for God, we fall into the trap of seeing God as angry because we are trying to meet an impossible standard on our own. Jesus is the only answer to our lives. He shows us God's love in the flesh and bestows His mercy and grace on us while we are still sinners. That is the mark of a loving God.
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