1 Return to the Lord your God, Israel’s people. Your sin has destroyed you.
2 Think about the things that you will say. And return to the Lord. Say to him, ‘ Forgive all our sins. Accept the good things that we are doing. We will praise you with our lips.
3 Assyria cannot save us. Our war horses cannot keep us away from trouble. We will never again say to idols that they are our God. Our hands had made those idols. But you are someone who shows great love. You show great love to children who have no parents.’
4 The Lord says, ‘They left me. But I will forgive them for that. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now.
5 I will be like the rain in the morning to Israel’s people. They will become like flowers. They will be like the tall trees in Lebanon. These trees will be very strong in the ground.
6 They will become alive with new branches. They will be beautiful like olive trees. They will have a smell like the tall trees in Lebanon.
7 Israel’s people will live again in a shade. They will grow well like grain. They will grow well like a vine. They will be famous like the wine from Lebanon. (Hosea 14)
Israel had a lot of ups and downs. For years they would worship and serve the Lord. Then years would fallow, that they wouldn’t. Verse 2 tells Israel to confess their sins to God and ask for forgiveness. 3, Goes on to say that only The Lord can defend them, that they will no longer tell idols that they were their God. They know what they’d been doing was seriously wrong, but there’s that word: BUT… “But you are someone who shows great love... They’re asking for forgiveness and promising to never do it again. In confidence that The Lord had enough love to take them back again. Had they done all this before? Of course they had. Sometimes they meant it sometimes they didn’t. Did they mean it this time? Well how does the Lord respond in verse 4? “They left me. But I will forgive them for that. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now.” He knew they meant it. He also knew they’d do it again in the future.
Let’s be honest, if the Lord were most people, He’d probably be more inclined to tell them He’d wait and see, how things go for a while before He forgave them. Of course it’s only by His power they could do right in the first place.
Sometimes we except God to be like us. We forget how graceful He really is. While we might find it hard to forgive, He actually doesn’t. Our sin is serious His wrath is serious. His loving grace is just as serious. God would rather do like the rest of the passage says. He’d rather make us beautiful and strong then hold a grudge.“But you are someone who shows great love.. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now…” He’d rather send His Son to die in place of all mankind then to punish us. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. (Rom.4:25)
Sometimes our prayer life isn’t what it could be, because we’re uncomfortable approaching the Lord. When we feel that we’re not worthy, we miss up too much. We’ve just done so many horrible things. That lack of quality time with the Lord because we find His grace hard to swallow, actually makes it even harder to do right. It’s a vicious cycle. He is the one who makes us righteous enough to come to Him. If you have sin weighing on you, you need to confess and trust His grace. If you’ve confessed sin, but still feel dirty, you need to trust His words. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 Jn. 1:9
If You’ve never know Jesus as your savior, all of this applies to you too. God is perfect, so He must punish sin. Jesus died under the weight of all our sin, in our place. If we believe and accept that what He did for us He becomes our savior.If you never have, I urge you to, now. Pray to Him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and He will. He love you and wants to save you!
A pray for both groups to come to you know Lord…
4 The Lord says, ‘They left me. But I will forgive them for that. I will love them very much. I am not angry with them now.
<3KellyClayWoo