Him Who Loved Us - Hosea 1-4 and Revelation 1
Stop and consider God's love for us. Many times we emphasize faith or obedience. God seems to emphasize love even more than anything else. Could that be because God is love? Could it be that He knows the power of love and the importance of love? I am afraid we do not understand the depth of God's love for us and how much He longs for us to love Him back. Stop and ask Him to show you about His love.
Hosea knew first hand what God's love was all about. God told him to marry a harlot to show the sin of Israel. God had loved His people and given them all of His faithful support like a wonderful husband does to his wife, but Israel had gone after other lovers. It broke God's heart, but the message of Hosea is that God still loved them, and He wanted them to come back and love Him. What indescribable love! What unselfish love! I pray that we would all see the great heart of love God has for us, even when we are unfaithful to Him. Sure, He has to punish our unfaithfulness, but He does it to draw us back to Him. He knows how much we would profit from a love relationship with Him.
Even in John's description of the risen Christ, he is compelled to describe Jesus as the one who loved us and washed us from our sins. He loved us while we were unlovely, and He came to us, because of His love. He died for us, while we still were in our sins. He desires to show His love and to have us choose to love Him back. How is your love for Christ? It is the motivation that will not fail to lead us to faith and obedience. However, without love, we will not act in faith or obedience as we should. Love never fails. Therefore, God never fails us, and we will not fail Him, if we love Him as we should.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Hosea 5-8 and Revelation 2.
Hosea knew first hand what God's love was all about. God told him to marry a harlot to show the sin of Israel. God had loved His people and given them all of His faithful support like a wonderful husband does to his wife, but Israel had gone after other lovers. It broke God's heart, but the message of Hosea is that God still loved them, and He wanted them to come back and love Him. What indescribable love! What unselfish love! I pray that we would all see the great heart of love God has for us, even when we are unfaithful to Him. Sure, He has to punish our unfaithfulness, but He does it to draw us back to Him. He knows how much we would profit from a love relationship with Him.
Even in John's description of the risen Christ, he is compelled to describe Jesus as the one who loved us and washed us from our sins. He loved us while we were unlovely, and He came to us, because of His love. He died for us, while we still were in our sins. He desires to show His love and to have us choose to love Him back. How is your love for Christ? It is the motivation that will not fail to lead us to faith and obedience. However, without love, we will not act in faith or obedience as we should. Love never fails. Therefore, God never fails us, and we will not fail Him, if we love Him as we should.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Hosea 5-8 and Revelation 2.