HOSEA 14:1

Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!

TO PONDER

How do you react when you become aware that you have offended a friend by what you said or did? Some of the methods I have tried are:

• Deny I did anything wrong and suggest that they are too sensitive for taking offence;
• Give a half-hearted apology and then stay away from them until they calm down and get over it;
• Ignore the situation by keeping very busy with something else (social media, hobby, alcohol or drugs) so that I don’t have to think about the pain of the situation.
• Sincerely apologise and spend time with them to understand more deeply how I have hurt them;

With our relationship with God, do we react any differently? One difference maybe our fear of punishment by God.

An incident in the bible I find very encouraging in dealing with failures to live to God’s standards is David and his infidelity with Bathsheba. If you want to make a list of which of the Ten Commandments he broke, they are at least coveting, adultery, lying and murder. When David was finally exposed by the prophet Nathan, he did not run away from God, but ran back to Him. (If you want to learn more about this episode in David’s life, read 2 Samuel: 11 & 12. You may also like to read Psalm 51.)

And that is just what another prophet, Hosea, is doing many centuries later in calling the Israelites to come back to the life God wants to give them. He loves them deeply, but they are committed to living a lifestyle that ignores God’s purpose for them. God sends prophet after prophet to them with a message of how to find meaning and purpose in their lives, but instead they went looking for excitement and fun that unfortunately caused deep pain and hurt to others, and to God.

When David admitted his failures, God restored him to that intimate and secure friendship that he had with God. God offers the same to us. No matter how much we have hurt Him and others, He has provided a way back to a close relationship with Him – by what Jesus did through his perfect life and sacrificial death.

PRAYER: (Psalm 51:10-12 (The Voice))

Create in me a clean heart, O God; restore within me a sense of being brand new.

Do not throw me far away from Your presence, and do not remove Your Holy Spirit from me.

Give back to me the deep delight of being saved by You; let Your willing Spirit sustain me.

Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping