Hosea 12

Hosea sure isn’t one of those “pick me up” kind of books.  He is in your face constantly with truth.  I guess that is what prophets do, and today in chapter 12 he is no different.  He is pointing out the utter sin and failure of God’s people and has them beat down and at God’s feet.  He points out that God “bested” Jacob and his ancestors and then was reduced to weeping and prayer.  But he asks a key question that I think we all need to consider.  God is who He is – that doesn’t change.  We are miserable sinners in His presence.  The answer is pretty clear actually.  We need to come back to God or draw near to God depending on our situation.  The question Hosea asks: “What are you waiting for? Return to your God”.  Seems so simple doesn’t it.  And it really is actually.  God isn’t a moving target – He never leaves us nor forsakes us.  His scripture makes that very clear.  He never stops loving us at all and is not hard to find.  But we have to do something for this restoration to take place.  We have to come back to Him.  Why wait and miss another day of His love?  That is actually just plain stupid on our part.  Hosea goes further and tells us how to “return to God”.  “Commit yourself in love, in justice! Wait for your God”.  What a simple formula – commit yourself in love.  That is a small solution to a big problem.  Trouble is we struggle with that commit part of the equation.  On the plane yesterday I started reading the book “One Month to Live” and it has a chapter dealing with this topic.  If we are going to “commit” to God – we have to stay “plugged in” to the source of power for our lives.  We have to choose not to pull the cord out of the socket and go about our lives on our own simply coming back to plug in when circumstances dictate a big need.  “Commit” means exactly what it sounds like – we need to plug in and stay plugged in to His love.  We need to be completely immersed in God’s will and work in our lives.  We need to be His…..that is what “commit” means.  We are no longer our own but bougth with a price.  So what are you waiting for?  The time will never be better to become a sold out and committed Christ follower.  Return to God – He is waiting and ready to love you!