Message Magazine’s Online Devotional for Monday, May 23, 2016
Today’s Scripture Focus: Hosea 11:8-11
We are focusing on sin recovery principle number five of 12: “We confessed to God, and when necessary, to people we have offended, the exact nature of our offenses.”
I was watching an old friend’s Facebook live video a couple of weeks ago. After he had poured out his heart to his viewers about success principles that could change our lives forever, he said something like, “I love you with all my heart, and there is not a…thing you can do about it.” He clenched his teeth with a playful smile as he modulated his voice to get his point across and then he signed off. I could feel the sincerity in his voice as he made the point.
Have you ever felt God’s love as He poured into your life? Have you ever read the Word and realized that there was nothing you could do to increase or diminish God’s love for you? Just think; Jesus subjected Himself to pain, ridicule, beatings, rejection, feelings of abandonment, and a humiliating public execution for you. And it’s fascinating that He did this all while the human race was in the worst shape of our lives. After thousands of years of degradation, and at the time we were at our weakest, Christ died for the ungodly.
God is longing to restore somebody reading this today. … Whatever the case, if you sense the call of God to give your life to Him, He’s waiting. He’s ready to listen to you tell him how you feel and where you think you have gone wrong.
The book of Hosea communicates this love masterfully. We get a glimpse of this love as God tells His prophet to buy his adulteress wife off the public slave trade block. What? You read this right. God commanded the man of God to purchase his harlot wife with his hard earned money. Notice what happened next: “And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.” (Hosea 3:3).
This unexpected love gesture illustrated the point that when we disrespect our relationship with God, He does not love us any less. Jesus paid our sin debt to release us from slavery to the devil. No, God does not take sin lightly. No, God does not just bury His divine head in the sand and act like nothing ever happened. However, before He can begin to mold and fashion us after His image, He has to cancel all rights Satan has to our lives. When we sin, we give the enemy the right to rule our lives. When we confess and forsake our sins, we give God the right to take over and transfer us to the kingdom of light where we can be in right relationship with Him.
God is longing to restore somebody reading this today. You may have turned your back on God for some reason or another. Perhaps you felt He abandoned you at a time you needed Him most. Maybe you loved the entrapments of this world more than your misperception of what God had to offer. Perhaps you have just been coasting through life, and now you want to live your life on purpose—His purpose for you. Whatever the case, if you sense the call of God to give your life to Him, He’s waiting. He’s ready to listen to you tell him how you feel and where you think you have gone wrong. He is ready to share His deepest thoughts and hopes for you from His Word through the Spirit. Won’t you surrender to Him today?
