Return To Me
Wednesday, February 26
Hosea 2:14-15 (NKJV)
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.”
Devotion
I will woo her, guard her and bring her to a protected place.
“He found him in a desert land And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” (Deuteronomy 32:10)
Individuals who have been “battered, beaten, neglected, abandoned, betrayed or trafficked will find it extremely hard to return to normalcy, or even a state of consciousness as seen in the movie ‘Redeeming Love’.
God is relentless in His pursuit towards the unloved. And many times we in return are ungrateful and unloving toward God.
Our paths can be very painful and difficult, but Jesus already walked them for us. In the movie ‘Redeeming Love’, the main character Michael was washing Sarah’s feet, and she asks him why. The answer is, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Hosea was not forced to marry Gomer, and God will not force us to marry anyone either. Yet, when God chooses someone for us, we will find it easy to fall in love with them.
Love is not only sex and pleasure, but always about closeness and trust which is far more rewarding and pleasurable in the long run.
God will always give us the freedom to choose, yet even in that transition, He will comfort us and close the wounds that have bruised and fractured us, so that in our choosing, we do not simply gravitate toward the familiar or what we have known.
The devil can only offer us what we were; never who we will become.
Michael paid Sarah’s debt for her release.
So did Jesus.
Michael spoke tenderly to Sarah, “I want to give you a good life. Come away with me.”
So does Jesus.
It must always be that when we come to the end of our dirty steps, our wanderings, our wildernesses, even to the end of ourselves, we return to our betrothed and say, “I came back to tell You I love You, and I am so sorry.” And the Father will respond, I will send out an Army to find you, so I may rescue you, redeem you and restore to you the years that the locust had eaten and ruined.
“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.” (Joel 2:25).
Today’s Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You that You speak tenderly to me. Thank You that You have drawn me to Yourself through the sacrifice of Jesus, lifted up on the cross. Help me to seek and relish and treasure my times alone with You. Speak to me day to day, showing me how to become more pleasing to You and how to bless those around me in Jesus. Teach me to speak tenderly to those who do not yet know Jesus, so that they may trust You also. In the Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Apply It Today
Jude 1:22-23 instructs us to have mercy on those who doubt; to save others by snatching them out of the fire (be more bold and direct); to others show mercy with fear (being careful not to share in their sins). Be bold to love others by telling them about Jesus. And pray before speaking that the Holy Spirit will give you what to say for each person.
Resources
- It doesn’t matter how long you have wandered off, watch this message, “It’s Time For A Comeback”, and take heed to the voice of the Lord. Return.
- Would you like to rededicate your life to the Lord and return to Him today? Pray the Salvation Prayer today.