I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips. Hosea 2: 17 

The cross symbolizes sacrifice. God sacrificed His Son. Jesus sacrificed His life. And if I decide to follow Jesus Christ, I must sacrifice my rights to worship anything or anyone but Jesus. 

God will remove the names of other gods from my lips. But as long as I speak their names with awe, bonding with God is impossible. He is left wanting for my affection and I am left wanting for that sense of completeness that comes when I am unified with Him in spirit. The resulting emptiness leads to dead-end pursuits; culminating in anger and hopelessness. 

Today, I turn my back to every other god. I give up my right to obsessively pursue perfection. Paint peels, weeds grow, equipment malfunctions, and people are mostly self- centered. If I frantically try to create Eden, I will lay down my head tonight feeling futility, because tomorrow I’ll have to repeat the rigorous exercise all over again. 

How much better to understand that this life only gives momentary reflections of perfection to come. I must embrace imperfection and allow myself to ache for my future home. I must lay down my right to force others to meet my needs. I’ll find that this very sacrifice is the doorway to joy because sacrifice leads to spiritual poverty, and spiritual poverty causes me to cry out to Jesus for spiritual riches. 

Sacrifice feels like death, initially, but sacrifice opens the door to union with God. I am whole by loving Him more than I love myself. I am healed as I worship. Sacrifice gives me the right to abide in the presence of Love. 

If there are any Baals left on my tongue, cleanse my heart. Remove them from my lips. Amen