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She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil. Hosea 2: 8 

I’ve experienced a lot of performance trauma.  It started in my teens.  It was exacerbated by my inability to say no to powerful people who exerted pressure on a 13 year old.  I had no training for taking care of myself as I grew up in a home where both parents lived to avoid conflict.  Hearing them say no was rare so I followed their lead; I did anything that was asked of me. 

I was born with a natural ear for music. If I heard a song, I could sit down and play it as early as three years old. While this was enjoyable, it also set me up to perform in situations that came with a pressure that was too intense for one so young. If I communicated my fears, they were usually dismissed. “We know you can do it, Christine!” 

In my early teens, I started traveling with a well known ministry.   I played for crusades and city-wide Gospel events. The evangelists’ belief level in me may have been misplaced, often having more to do with them getting what they wanted from me and less to do with their confidence in my ability.  My repetitive self-talk before going on stage was this ~ “I have to do this but I can’t. But I have to. But I can’t.” Then, I’d hear my name being announced and sheer grit would take over. 

In my thirties, I assessed the damage. My body quit on me.  I had a nervous breakdown.  I felt God had abandoned me. “Where were you all these years?  I always did what others wanted but I did it alone.”  I entered counseling.  During a prayer time, I discerned God’s answer to my question.  “You didn’t do it by yourself.  I helped you do it every single time.” I was humbled to realize that He really had come through for me.

When life requires difficult things of us and we have to, with great tenacity, put one foot in front of the other, we mistakenly think we’re doing it single-handedly. But our thought processes, which enable us to devise a plan, are God-breathed. Physical endurance is made available to us, outside of ourselves. God is faithful to preserve our mind and our spirit.  May our accusations pause.  Let’s be open and humbled to hear God’s whispers of truth.

I was angry with You for abandoning me until I heard You speak to me.  Thank you! Amen 

She said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen.” Hosea 2:5b 

Magical thinking.  Children have it.  Adults should have outgrown it and exchanged it for wisdom but each of us will fight magical thinking in areas specific to our story.  For instance, some of us really believe that once a person understands that what they are doing is causing us harm us, they’ll wake up, feel badly, and make a course correction.  If only this were true!   And this is just one example.

How many times have I justified something in my life by saying, “Maybe this is wrong but….” What followed was the list of personal benefits.  Sin paid off, or so I thought.  What I gained by giving into it far outweighed what I would have had to sacrifice to make a change. And oftentimes, change was too frightening but that was only because I didn’t know the power of the Word and the Spirit working together in my heart. 

God speaks to Hosea and tells Him that Israel justifies her harlotry because of what she receives from her lovers. She benefits by her flirtations. Other gods cause her to prosper. Other gods make her feel good about herself.  Other gods bring about an adrenaline rush. Let’s face it ~ consciences can be skewed when the soul is in a place of delight. 

God will have to make sure that Israel’s way is thwarted, that her pleasures are short- lived. If it means marking her pathway with sharp stones, so be it. His nature is not to punish but to restore. His nature is not to withhold, but to bless. His nature is not to ruin a good time, but to overwhelm His children with pleasures this world can not duplicate. 

These realities are not as easy to put our hands on as the temporal, that is true. They only come by way of pursuing God relentlessly.  But we are never sorry that we rejected the counterfeit and waited for the real thing.   We were meant to live in awe and wonder.

I will face decisions today that offer an instant payoff. Let me take the high road to the North, the one that leads to Your mountaintop. In Jesus’ name, Amen 

Therefore, I will block her path with thorn bushes; I will wall her in so she can not find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them. Hosea 2:56

Depression has many faces ~ Sleep eludes you. Food tastes bland. Enjoyment of beautiful things is absent.  Agitation is a constant companion.  The plot of an otherwise great movie isn’t mildly interesting. You are suspended in a pit of nothingness. 

This also describes the child of God who has looked to other things to fill his soul only to discover that each failed to deliver what it promised. Like any addiction, what amount used to satisfy, no longer does. It takes ‘bigger and better’ to make a dent. 

Is God directly involved in these worthless pursuits?  The story of Hosea shows the level of his involvement.  He is a Father who blocks our path and causes us to travel in circles.  He is the Author of such aggravation. He is not a kill-joy; He is the source of all joy.  He hopes we’ll throw up our hands and cease our wanderings. He holds His breath, hoping we’ll take the road back home. 

With God, appetites are satisfied. Thrills are experienced. Joy is inexpressible. Wonder is  inexhaustible.  Truth is energizing. An person who ran from God but finally realized his folly and returned home wonders why he waited so long. Why didn’t he just believe God years ago and save himself such a tortuous path? That is always the question and there is always regret.

The stories of so many who learned these lessons the hard way lived before us.  Their voices are compelling.  They shout out to us today, ‘Make the course change now. Any other quest for meaning will only lead to a dead end street.’

My soul will lead me away from You, but I thank You for frustrating me on my journey to nowhere. I now live in You and I am well. Amen 

She said, `I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’ Therefore I will block her path with thorn bushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. Hosea 2: 5,6 

Hosea married a prostitute. She bore him two children, grew discontent, and then went off to find other lovers. God reveals that her story will be my story ~ when I grow bored, turn away,  and pursue other love interests.  My discontent tricks me into believing that a detour, a distraction, is what I really need.  I can name all the ways I think I’ll benefit but ‘shalom’ never materializes to the point of soul-filling. Disillusionment greets me at the end. 

God actually planned it that way!  He’s not cruel.  He’s jealous.  But with only fallen humanity as a backdrop to understand the meaning of jealousy, I can be tripped up thinking of God as the One who is jealous.  But doesn’t it have to be a holy thing when He feels it?   He is holy.  He designed me in a way where He can be the only One who fills that aching void in my soul. He is the sole primary source for connection and romance. 

God’s greatest desire is that I will pursue Him, commune with Him, and discover the pleasure for which I was created.  With that in mind, what more loving thing could He do than thwart my spiritual affairs? Because He gave me free choice, He won’t stop me from wandering, but He will make sure that I come up empty when I turn to fickle sources.  He hopes that my empty heart will drive me back to perfect Love. 

Where are you looking for soul satisfaction today?  When you repeatedly extend your heart to find love and connection and come up empty, it’s a sure sign that what you seek will not be found there. Your heart was made to rest near to the heart of God. 

I’ve taken some long, hard journeys away from You.  But I’m so glad I came home. Amen 

They have gone deep into depravity. They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God. Hosea 2:2,4 

The real tragedy is not that people sin, it’s what happens after they do.  Sin should prick our consciences and cause us to fall into repentance. Conviction should direct us toward God, not away from Him. 

One of the foundational pillars of our Christian doctrine is that we are sinners and Christ died to pay for our sins. After we come to Christ, we often forget that we are still sinners, saved by grace.  Instead, we succumb to the pressure to appear perfect.  Sins of the heart abound but they stay hidden in communities where everyone wears a mask.  There is verbal assent that Christ came to save sinners few want to admit that they are one anymore. 

There are at least two roadsigns on the way to pretension. 

. . when I excuse my behavior and deny the act. I whitewash it by making horizontal comparisons with other people. When I see my neighbor as much worse off than myself, I am already in trouble.

. . when I minimize my shortcomings so that others will think more highly of me.  I’ll accuse the person I wronged of over-exaggerating my sin.  It is my injured pride that causes me to re-shape my sin into a more manageable package. 

Any thought that is not something Jesus would have thought, or any act that Jesus would not have engaged in, is sin. Even the smallest of offenses would have been enough to condemn me to an eternity separated from God.  There is no such thing as an insignificant sin.

I want to live cross-centered, pursuing the mind of Christ, so that I won’t be self-impressed nor self-protective. 

Show me who I am, with and without Your grace.  In Jesus’ name, Amen 

Say unto your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.” Hosea 2:1 

Hosea is a beautiful story of God’s mercy. It showcases the long arm of God and the extent to which He will go to reach His children when they are far from Him. Throughout this prophetic book, God delivers some difficult words to the people He loves, and, unfortunately, they are well deserved. Their betrayal has been profound, and their disobedience heartbreaking.  His messages will be proclaimed with sobering clarity but the people aren’t in a place yet to take them to heart. They are enjoying their sin too much. 

In spite of this, God’s unchanging love for them is evident in the way He addresses them. “Ammi” means ‘my people’ and ‘Ruhamah’ means ‘those who have obtained mercy’. 

To make a fair comparison, let’s imagine a wife sitting down to have a difficult conversation with an unfaithful husband. She begins by addressing him as ‘my dear husband – who has already obtained mercy.’ Even if what follows is tough love, there is surely a foundation for the future. 

This reminds of me a scene between Peter and Jesus in the upper room, the night Jesus would be arrested. Peter tells Jesus, in a sincere flash of passion, that he is ready to die for Him. Jesus replies, “Not only aren’t you ready to give your life for Me, but before morning comes, you will deny that you know Me three times.” At this, Peter’s heart is full of anguish. It’s what Jesus says next that is so far from the confines of human limits. “Don’t be worried and upset.  Believe in God.  Believe also in me.” There is mercy before the sin; mercy that bridges the present and the future. 

You and I have a Savior who tells us that though we will fail Him today, we should not be consumed with hopelessness. This is not to say that we shouldn’t take our sin seriously, but only that He stands ready to forgive and extend mercy when we repent. Peter’s restoration with Jesus after the resurrection provides a picture of one who obtained unfathomable mercy. They ate a meal together, exchanged heartfelt words about ‘feeding the sheep’, and Peter went on to become the founding father of the New Testament church. The unspoken posture of his writings is, consistently, ‘one who has obtained mercy.’ 

For every way I have failed You, there is redemption. I fall on my knees in gratitude. Amen 

Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea. It will come to pass, in that place where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” it will be said, “You are the sons of the living God.” Hosea 1:10 

The nation of Israel was under God’s displeasure. They were walking in disobedience and God got creative in the methods He used for getting a message to His people.  He told Hosea to marry a prostitute. Then, God named each of Hosea’s three children with names that bore a targeted message. 1.) I will crush your fighting strength because you have forsaken Me. 2.) You will experience me as a God who has run out of mercy, so long as you fail to repent. 3.) Your rejection of Me will cause others to say that I am not your God.

 Each one was a tragic word which should have grieved the hearts of each Israelite but they continued to walk in perverted paths.  In spite of this, God followed up these messages with an additional one that began with the word “yet”. In that turn of a phrase, the message of salvation and redemption flowed from the mouth of a heartbroken Father. 

This three-letter word, ‘yet’, can still be heard as God expresses Himself in the New Covenant. 

You may not love Me, yet My love for you is unchanged. 

You may not search for Me, yet I pursue you and keep calling you by name. 

You may be chasing after other gods, yet I will keep sending my messengers to you, reminding you to come to me. 

You may believe that your sin has disqualified you from a real future, yet I have one waiting for you to claim after tears of repentance.

“Yet” is indicative of a value system that is other-worldly. We don’t experience it much here on Earth.  God wants us to know that we are citizens of His kingdom. What we really deserve is withheld when we repent of our sins. What we have not earned is freely given by a God who delights in being extravagant. 

I have failed so many times to love You, yet You loved me anyway. Your message still lives to the Israelites still lives.  For me, for my family, and for the land of Israel who does not yet acknowledge Your Son.  There is no greater love.  In Jesus name, Amen

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. Genesis 37:2-3

Favoritism can be complicated. Jacob didn’t make Joseph his favorite to spite other righteous sons. Many of the others had already proven themselves to be troublemakers, bound up in foolishness. They had spurned their father’s ways, leaving a trail of disappointment and hurt.

I’m not defending the fact that Jacob showed favoritism. He acted unwisely and set things up for the other sons to hate their brother. From any sibling’s perspective, favoritism never ends well.

But from a parent’s perspective?  Well, the heart is a complicated thing. It can be difficult to have the same affection for each of your children. If one is bent toward evil, disrespects authority, and has no regard for family, isn’t it difficult to feel as attached to that one as much as another whose heart clearly belongs to God? It can be hard to disguise the pleasure you feel over the one that is righteous. It’s equally hard to hide the pain the other one inflicts when they act out against members of your family.  

This is where each mother and father needs Jesus desperately. Only He can heal the hurts caused by a wayward child. Only He can give the spiritual fuel necessary to love the renegade wisely. Only He can show parents how to bestow unconditional love to two kinds of children. How will the child who loves rebellion not see the delight in his parent’s eyes over the ‘good’ sibling? God is the only one who can write the relational roadmap for these dynamics.

In the long run, Jacob should have learned from his own troubled childhood. Favoritism hadn’t worked out well between he and Esau either. Unfortunately, he will repeat it again by failing to disguise his deep affection for Joseph. He will give him a coat, the kind of coat only a royal child would wear. This will fuel the other’s hatred for their brother. In spite of Jacob’s mistakes, God’s purpose for Joseph and the future of Israel will not be thwarted. That is comforting, isn’t it?  In the days ahead, we’ll be in awe of a God who does all things well ~ even when it appears our sin has destroyed all hope of a future.

You are the God of grace and redemption. Bind our families together in righteousness so that we still stand in the last day. In Jesus’ name, Amen

There is no gift more valuable than the gift of prayer. When we craft prayers for others, we invest in their future. Lianna Klassen, a Celtic Christian artist in the early 2000’s, wrote a song called, ‘The Future Belongs to the Intercessors.” As soon as I heard it, it was one of those phrases that stuck like glue.

While the most valuable of all gifts is prayer, casual and insincere promises of prayer can leave something to be desired. ‘I’ll pray for you’ is often the quick go-to line when someone needs to make a quick exit. It’s the believer’s equivalent to, ‘Have a nice day!’ Does everyone who says, ‘I’ll pray for you’ actually do it? We know the answer.

The person who needed it so desperately would be very discouraged if they knew that the one who promised to pray didn’t actually do it. It’s comforting to know that Jesus prays continually. We are never in a position where we have no one talking to the Father about us. Jesus sits at His Father’s side at this very moment and is praying for us with great detail, with intense passion, and with divine knowledge.

The night of Jesus’ arrest, He showed us the value of prayer. When He was preparing to say goodbye to His disciples, He broke into the longest prayer in the Bible. (John 17) It’s so weighty that we could spend years meditating on it and not scratch the surface. When my prayers habitually sound like this ~ “Jesus, please be near them and bless them”, I should know that I’m only skimming the surface. Scripture fuels my prayers with substance and fire.

Here are a few ideas from personal experience and from hanging around other intercessors.

• Ask the one you are praying for, ‘What is it you need from God?’  Listen before you begin praying. It need never be guesswork.
• Ask God to lead you to the right scriptures to undergird your prayers. Put their names in the passage.
• If someone is open, offer to pray for them right after they have shared their need. Be intentional to pray their story. Let them hear you verbalize to God why they need Him. Be sure to end your prayers with God’s promises!
• Say their name throughout the prayer and if the relationship warrants it, touch them. Hold their hand, put your hand on their arm or shoulder, because this may be the only tenderness they ever experience.
• Finally, I often ask the one who has asked me to pray for them, if they are also praying for themselves. It’s easy to expect someone else to do what I’m too lazy to do for myself. Corrie Ten Boom quote ~ “Dear Jesus…how foolish of me to have called for human help when You are here.

Lord, You know that effective prayer takes time.  I need Your help knowing whose spiritual soil is tilled and ready. Amen

If Jesus, when asked to teach His disciples how to pray, composed this prayer out of the perfection of His holiness, is this not the perfect prayer?  Perfect in comprehensive content, perfect in composition, even perfect in length.

How does it look for me to use this prayer as a template – expanding it as the Spirit leads?  Here is one of endless possibilities of personalization.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. I bow low, prostrate before Your throne.  You are my Father, holy, and perfect. I am nothing.  You are everything.  Unless You enter my world today, it will be of no value.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I see my need right now, Lord.  I see my family’s needs.  Your kingdom needs to come down to our little place on earth.  In Your kingdom, there is righteousness.  Thy kingdom come to us.  In Your kingdom, there is peace.  Thy kingdom come to us.  In Your kingdom, there is structure and order.  Thy kingdom come to us.  May Your will be done here, in every way, just as it is done in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Give me hidden manna, Lord.  I embrace Your Word to my heart.  Open the eyes of my heart to see Your Word and understand it. Give me the grace to apply it.  May every member of my family today hunger for your daily bread.  Feed them so that they might live in Your abundance.  May we be a family who feasts on daily manna.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. I stand in the flow of Calvary.  Wash me clean, make me holy, that we may fellowship together without restriction.  I forgive those who will wrong me in any way today.  I put on Your forgiving Spirit as I live out my day.  I pray for every member of my family.  Mold each of them into a child of Yours who walks in Jesus’ lifestyle of forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I stand on Your promise that you will not give me more than I can bear.  The challenges, the sicknesses, the trials have all passed through Your sovereign hand.  Wherever I am assaulted, deliver me from evil.  Fight for me while I sleep, while I trust, while I do Your kingdom work.  Battle the unseen forces that I can’t see.  Make me battle ready to take every thought captive today, to put on the armor and stand in the victory You won for me at Calvary.

For Thine is the power, and the kingdom, and the glory forever, Amen.