Reclaiming the Truth
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” Hosea 3.1-2
Redeeming the Time
If you didn’t know the rest of this story you might assume at this point Hosea refuses, or at least complains. You know the rest of the story. Hosea doesn’t refuse, he doesn’t even complain. He somehow just believes. He believes God. He doesn’t just believe in God. He believes God. SO he goes to “show love to his wife again, those she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.” The courage to be obedient here is miraculous. Notice, Gomer is not just with another man, Gomer is “loved by another man.” And yet Hosea goes to find her and bring her home.
It’s not love if it can’t be refused. We are free to refuse or receive the love of God. Every day, in every moment, we have the invitation to live into God’s unimaginably good love or refuse it for the love of another, or maybe worse yet, the love of self.
It would be wrong for us to skip over the other implication in these verses. The implication that stares us in the face and makes our heart skip a beat. The one that says to you, “Go show your love again….”
Go show your love again.
Reflection
- How has God “shown His love again” to you most recently?
- Describe the last time you refused His love. What was the outcome?
- To whom might God be calling you to show your love again, His love again?
Resting in His Redemption
Our God is patient. He is kind. He is loving. His love will prevail in our life. Rest and receive this prayer from A.W. Tozer:
“Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide them from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell without a rival. Then shall Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need for the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
