READING: Hosea 1-4, Revelation 1
“I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”
Hosea 2:14
God is never pleased with our sin. He does not take lightly when we who have received His grace and forgiveness still choose to transgress His standards. In fact, He sometimes brings judgment on us, allowing us to suffer the consequences of our choices so we might see the folly of our wrong and return to Him. Never, though, does He abandon those who are His children even as He judges them.
In today’s reading from Hosea, God said these words about His people: “I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her” (Hos 2:14). Not only would God show His people that their false gods could provide them nothing, but He would also seek them almost as if He were courting them again. Even the “wilderness” carried a positive connotation as the time when God had first freed them from the bondage of Egypt. The words speak of God’s wooing His people away from their false lovers, with His speaking tenderly to them upon their return.
God takes adulterous people, loves them enough to show them the error of their ways, pursues them, woos them back, and then treats them as if they had never turned from Him in the first place. He never stops loving His people even when they love other gods more than they love Him. He pursues us faster than we can run.
ACTION STEPS:
- Think today about times when you’ve rejected God by your actions, but He did not let go of you.
- Be filled with wonder about His willingness to keep loving you.
PRAYER: “Father, I cannot fathom how much You love me. Help me to love You will all my heart and all my actions.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Hosea 5-8, Revelation 2
