Chara-Joy 🌸

Hosea 1:1-, Jeremiah 3:13-14, Isaiah 40: 31

Time spent with God is not time wasted. In such moments, you get to hear from God, you get to fellowship with the Holy Spirit, your spirit get renewed as the scripture says ‘They that wait upon the Lord….’ Is 40:31

I found myself in such a moment and Hosea and Gomer came to my mind. Bible says the Holy Spirit will teach and also will remind you…’John 14:26

In this story, God told Hosea a holy prophet to go and marry a prostitute. A prostitute? You may ask why will God do such a thing? I had the same question too, and the good news is Hosea also did. He was a humble man to have agreed to do that. A lot of people would have said they did not hear from God well.

Gomer, the prostitute is chosen for Hosea and she settle’s into her marital home. You may have thought that she will be grateful for the rest of her life, having been ‘rescued’ from the streets but NO, Gomer’s eyes were still on the things she had and was involved in before marrying the holy prophet. She was still flirting with men at the least opportunity, seeking their approval and spending time with the same people she spent time with before marriage. Gomer was not used to this ‘holy’ kind of living and went out to prostitute herself, but Hosea repeatedly took her back. Her body was in Hosea’s house but her mind was afar off on the streets; where she had spent all her life. How long was Hosea going to keep her in his house?

Beloved, this story is about Christ and His church. We are the prostitute in this story. He is a holy God, and has no sin in Him, yet He was able to come down to earth and relate with us and is even married to us (Romans 7:4). We are however unfaithful to Him, don’t love Him or love His ways. We are in His house (the church), but our minds and hearts are not focused on Him. We are always flirting with the world; our souls are attached to different Idols.

The Lord is shouting and calling us. In Jeremiah 3:14 He says ‘Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:’
Beloved, there is grace and mercy at the acceptable time to change our ways and return to the Lord. As He said in Jeremiah 3:13 ‘Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD.’
The Lord can cast us away but He loves us, and keeps on giving us further chances to return to Him. A time will however come when ‘time will be no more’ Rev 10:6.

How can we begin to love the Lord? It is just like having a relationship with anybody. You talk to the person; you spend time with the person; you read messages from the person, and if possible anything that’s been written  about the person. Our souls are not used to loving someone we can’t see, so we must deliberately fill our minds and  hearts with the Truth that is in the scriptures. Remember that He is coming back for a bride without spots. What are the spots? They are things we have filled ourselves with that are not godly.

Let’s pray 🙏

Father thank you for your love for me that makes you keep correcting me as you said in Heb 12. Please cleanse and remove anything in me that you have not planted in Jesus’s name. Amen