Good Morning Friends,
"'I will punish her for the days she
burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and
went after her lovers, but me she forgot,' declares the LORD. 'Therefore I am
now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to
her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor
a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day
she came up out of Egypt. In that day,' declares the LORD, 'you will call me
'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.''" (Hosea 2:13-16)
God did not allow Israel's spiritual adultery
to go on as though unnoticed by Him. He brought pain and discomfort upon Israel
as a result of their unfaithfulness to Him. It was discipline from Him aimed at
getting them to wake up and turn away from their sin.
And when they would turn away from their sin,
they found the Lord waiting for them, ready to renew His love relationship with
them. God was always ready to take them back. No matter how long or how much or
how far they had strayed, when they turned back to God they found Him ready and
anxious to have them back.
And when God took His wandering people back it
was not with any reluctance. He "allured" them, He wooed them back.
He spoke "tenderly" to them. God loves His people and always wants
them back.
What was true of Israel is also true of us. We
wander from God, turning to others to serve and give allegiance to, we forget
the Lord. When we do, God does bring discipline into our lives, pain and
discomfort. Not to punish us, but to urge us to turn back to Him. And when we
do turn back to Him we find Him waiting anxiously to embrace us and renew His
love relationship with us.
God always wants us back!
His, by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment