Joel 2:12

"Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

The contingency of all God's warnings of impending judgments is seen in this. No matter how closely a rebellious people might have moved toward that hidden boundary between God's mercy and God's wrath, the Father will even then be deterred from the execution of his wrath, if only the people will truly repent and turn to him with all their hearts.

Contrary to the widely advocated notion that it is merely the inward response alone that is important, this passage shows that a genuine turning to God with all the heart was an absolute essential; but so also was an acceptable outward manifestation of it, "fasting, weeping and mourning." "Genuine sorrow and shame for sin were to be accompanied by fasting, tears of penitence, and other indications of mourning."[20]

We should not leave this verse without noting that, "When the Bible says heart it means man's thinking powers, not his emotions."[21] Jesus once asked the Pharisees, "Why think ye evil in your hearts?" indicating clearly enough, that in the Bible, the heart is actually the mind. Emotions are always exposed in the sacred text as very unreliable.