Category: Daily Devotionals

MISSED POTENTIAL

There is no knowledge of God in the land.  Therefore, the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes.  Hosea 4:3

    Anyone who decides to live without God forfeits the joy of living to his fullest potential.  There is a part of him that will mourn, not fully understanding what it is that he has even lost.  He will languish for what he can not even define.

    The Creator who made a million decisions as He put us together, had dreams what we would become if we discovered His love and learned to live with Him.  He knew that we would realize the peak of our design only if we made Him Lord in the process.  To ignore our Creator is to turn our back on our potential.

    There are so many ways to languish when I choose to live without God.

• My marriage suffers.  It will never be more than what I can humanly create.  Tragically, I will miss things that can only be born of heaven.  I will fail to see my husband’s face soften when I say, “God led me to pray for you at 1:00 this morning…”
• My friendships suffer.  Fellowship will be relegated to small talk.  Sadly, we will never know how exhilarating it is to explore a biblical story together and lose track of time.
• My career suffers.  Never fully understanding my true potential, I will choose a life’s work that can only prove partially rewarding.  Because I am a spiritual being, whatever I decide to become must have a large spiritual component for me to be effective and fulfilled.  Allowing Jesus to breathe through my life whether I am a doctor, a clerk, a janitor, or a communicator is the capstone of all life’s experiences.

    Even planet Earth languishes under the stewardship of those alienated from God.  Our carelessness with God’s creation is exacting a great price on our land.  Wildlife, quality of water, and the air we breathe all bear the effects.

    God’s heart aches and His Creation languishes when divine intentions are spurned.  His greatest desire today is for us to know Him intimately.  In the process, we will walk with our hand in His and become all He intended.  “Languishing” will never describe the one who makes His home with Abba Father.

Oh God, You know that I knew ‘languishing’.  I have also known ‘mourning’.  But gratefully, I also know what it is like to come out of my skin because I know the joy of living in You.  Thank you!  Amen

A DIVINE LAWSUIT

Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land.  Hosea 4:1

            These had to be shocking words to Hosea, and ultimately, to the people of Israel.  God had a case against them.  “Case” is a legal term meaning “lawsuit”.  Think of it, God was the plaintiff.  Israel, the defendant.  Jehovah vs. Israel.  If I had been a Jew during that time, and if I’d seen such a charge written up on legal stationery, I would have fainted on the spot.  To have a lawsuit brought against you by God would be the most frightening of all life’s experiences.  Continue reading “A Divine Lawsuit” →

The Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land.  Hosea 4:1

Truth, mercy and knowledge are all three connected.  When there is no knowledge of God, truth and mercy are non-existent. Truth has to be rooted in something more than personal opinion and mercy goes beyond self-interest.  In this post-modern society, and a biblical illiterate society for the most part, each person is left to define truth as he perceives it to be.  Whatever he thinks is right, is supposedly considered right for himself.  Feelings and logic determine his own brand of truth.

Without a plumb line for morality, immorality abounds.  Lawlessness begins to permeate a society and God takes issue with a nation that defies His law.  People to whom truth and mercy are foreign are also personally lost.  On difficult days, they’re angry and disillusioned.  On good days, they party hard and are dissociated from their soul’s cry for meaning.

Knowledge of God is always more than just information.  It is a ‘knowing’ as in the context of intimacy.  Technically, I can become intellectually informed about the person of God and say I have rubbed shoulders with truth.  This brings little change though.  Real transformation occurs when I unreservedly commit myself to a personal relationship with God.  In that total submission, there is a willingness to be vulnerable and to be loved completely by the One who is Truth and who also is called Mercy.  Anger leaves the lines of my face.  Dissociation from myself and others no longer defines my default way of relating.  At home in God, and in my own skin, I can flourish. This is called SHALOM.

Lord, I want to know You more.  When you look at me, I pray you will see truth and mercy.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

SEEING LOVE TOO LATE

After the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.  Hosea 3:5

    Did you ever come to realize that a love you spurned was really precious?  You didn’t recognize the gift that it was until later.   That often happens.  I can decide how love should look and declare what I want out of the relationship.  In so doing, I close myself off from the myriad of other ways love is expressed.  It isn’t until it’s gone that I look back with improved vision.  I am humbled as I remember one tender gesture after another and think, “How could I have been so blind?”  Continue reading “Seeing Love Too Late” →

CAUTIOUS EXCITEMENT

They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.  Hosea 3: 5

            It would seem that people should run toward something that seems too good to be true.  That’s not always the case.  People often fear joy and success as deeply as they fear despair and failure.

            I remember how I felt on the eve of some of the best days of my life; the days I perceived dreams would come true.  I trembled with a sense of wonder and excitement but I also shook with trepidation.  I wondered if what I had looked forward to would actually be as good as I anticipated.  Trembling was a sign that I was braced for disappointment. Continue reading “Cautious Excitement” →

NO KING, NO PRIEST, NO GOD-CONNECTION

For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or teraphim.  Hosea 3:4

            When a nation turns her back on God, it languishes in more ways than just one.  Her loss is more than just spiritual.  It is threefold – according to God.

    1.) She will not have a king or prince.  She will be void of the national or political leadership she needs.  People will look to leaders for justice.  It won’t be found because corruption will mark the climate of the government.  She will look for compassion, for fairness, and for respect.  Promises for all three might have been made during the election process, but once the leaders were installed, such rhetoric was forgotten. Continue reading “No King, No Priest” →

MINUS REVENGE

Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days.  You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man, so I will also be toward you.” Hosea 3:3

    It’s pretty easy to do the right thing when there is nothing to cloud our motivation.  I can be gracious to a stranger.  I can love others who haven’t hurt me. However, if I am in relationship with someone with who consistently wounds me, my choices for relating are clouded by my unresolved hurt.  Let someone attack me long enough and my claws will probably come out.  Continue reading “Minus Revenge” →

BREAKING THE CYCLE OF ISOLATION

I will sow her for Myself in the land.  I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion.  Hosea 2:23

    Our sin has consequences but God is able to look into the future, past the present time when we suffer the effects of our choices, and see His act of redemption played out.  He knows how He will intervene on our behalf, how He will show mercy when we think we deserve none.  He is clear about the nature of His unchanging love even in the face of our unfaithfulness.

    Israel had played the harlot and gone after other gods.  God marked her way with thorns so that her travel would be beset with hardship.  This was not to be cruel but to encourage her to come back home.  Still, she spurned His love and continued traveling in the opposite direction.  Continue reading “Breaking The Cycle Of Isolation” →

I CAN’T BELIEVE WHO I AM 

 I will say to those called `Not my people, ‘ `You are my people’; and they will say, `You are my God.’ ”  Hosea 2: 23 

            Has it ever been said of you, “She’ll never amount to much!”  Maybe others thought you were too sick, too emotionally unstable, too old, or simply had too many tragedies to overcome to live a life that counts.  Whatever the comments, statements of hopelessness can cripple a person’s spirit if they don’t fortify themselves with the words of God.  Continue reading “I Can’t Believe Who I Am” →

TILL DEATH AND BEYOND

I will betroth you to me forever.  Hosea 2: 19

           “I’ll be your friend forever,” many say to one another.  Yet one small comment that leads to a misunderstanding has the potential to fracture the relationship and cause the friendship to erode. Continue reading “Till Death And Beyond” →