Read His Words Before Ours!
Psalm 51:10
Hosea 6
Romans 1:18-28
Bride, Day 10
I’m currently walking through a season of being still before the Lord.
After years of heartache, frustration, questions, and emptiness, the time has come for me to stop talking to the Lord about all the wrong in my life and
start listening to His truth and who He says I am.
I felt strongly that in order to start off this season of quiet, I first needed to repent.
To cleanse my heart of all that had a hold of it.
And so I sat down and listed them off, one by one.
God, I am sorry for thinking that I can be the best mom, wife, friend, sister, daughter, while serving on worship team, writing for a blog, and leading a small group without spending enough time in loving union with You.
Self-Reliant.
God, I am sorry for not acknowledging You for the help that we have received in the midst of job transitions, church commitments, being out of town, or a simple date night. None of those would have been possible without You.
Thankless.
God, I am sorry for not listening to you when You told me to keep loving my husband and serving him the way You have called me to.
Selfish
I’m sorry for not extending grace to my daughter as she stops to learn something new, causing us to be late yet again.
Prideful.
God, I am sorry for using the gift that You have given to me without letting You be used through me every single time.
Arrogance.
I was blind to how my sin added a soul crushing burden to my everyday life. Looking over the list I had just made I knew it was time to hear what the Lord wanted to say, and so with that, I turned the page.
And isn’t that so true of all of us?
We walk this life carrying bitterness towards someone who offended us years prior.
We hold grudges towards our spouse because of something said in an argument.
We try and navigate our life without the One who is the Giver of life, because we feel we are better guides.
We have become a people who think if we haven’t done ‘wrong’ by worldly standards,
or by the girl’s next door,
then we haven’t done wrong at all.
But sweet friend that isn’t true.
The Father’s heart is for His children to come back to Him,
releasing the sin that we have a hold of.
The sin that has a hold of us.
As we’ve journeyed through the book of Hosea for the last two weeks we can see an overall theme of unrepentance woven throughout. From Gomer, to Israel, to us as God’s people, unrepentant hearts are the constant.
In fact, the heading in my Bible over chapter six says:
A Call to Repentance
“Come, let us return to the Lord;
for He has torn us, that He may heal us;
He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live before Him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
His going out is sure as the dawn;
He will come to us as the showers,
As the spring rains that water the earth.”
Hosea 6:1-3
Charles Spurgeon notes in his commentary of this passage:
Tender fathers seek first to train their children by gentle means.
The Lord, in His patience, dealt kindly with His stumbling Israel, sending them favor after favor and blessing after blessing. But the more He multiplied His blessings, the more they multiplied their iniquities.
So they spent the mercies of God in sacrifice to their idols and committed transgressions with the false gods of the heathen, consuming with their lusts the mercies God had sent to bring them to repentance.
Walking through this season of being still before the Lord,
of being called back to repentance,
has caused me to realize all of the areas in my life that
I had taken God’s mercies for granted.
And as I turned that page in my story, falling before the throne of the God, with tears, with a broken heart over my sin,
do you know what I didn’t hear?
Condemnation.
You know what I didn’t feel?
Pushback
Oh I surely deserved it.
Sisters, our Holy God is rightfully wrathful to the offensiveness of our sin! (link rom 1:18)
I deserved much worse when I look face to face upon the sin I have loved and then compare it to the pure, un-adulterated, endless holiness of the Lord God Almighty.
But no.
In that moment as I turned my unrepentance into repentance, there was….
Peace.
Forgiveness.
Intimacy.
Love.
Because His wrath against my sin had already been pacified.
With blood.
Not mine, but my Savior’s.
Forgiveness is mine because my Savior pursued me, even in my sin, He pursued.
He fought for me.
He chased me, again and again and again.
And when I turned,
He. Was. There.
With peace.
With forgiveness.
With intimacy restored.
With love un-imaginable.
And right there is the tragedy of Gomer and Hosea.
Of Israel and her Shepherd King, Yahweh.
Love was waiting.
But she kept running.
Israel’s story, Gomer’s story, they don’t have to be ours.
Turn around, sister, lay your sins, one by one, right there at the foot of the cross of Christ,
and stand forgiven, redeemed, and at peace with the Almighty God!
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