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He is FOR me
Pat McFall"We will never again say, 'our gods' to what we have made with our own hands, for in you the fatherless find compassion. I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned from them." -- Hosea 14:3-4
The Lord had much to say through Hosea about Israel's rebellion. He saw the Baal worship, the sexual immorality, the human sacrfice and His heart broke for His people. God even was angry, because God does get angry. He has other things to say in judgmentis on its way. But Ch.14 gives us a full picture of God's heart. He is not a god that desires blind submission or else! He is FOR His people. God is where both love and justice kiss. Hosea paints an incredible picture of a people whose hearts are turned back to God in repentance. The people stop depending on their handmade gods to get what they want. They remember the kindness of God towards them. Hosea says it looks like a refreshing dew or a blossiming lily. He says God's splendor will look like an olive tree whose roots are deep. God's people will dwell again in the shade of God's love, cared for once more.
I need to remember that God is FOR me. He's for me, He is for all of His children. He isn't against me, He isn't opposing me. He desires to draw me into deeper communion with Him. But there are times when I am more concerned with my own way, my own wants. Like Israel I start depending on the idols made by my own hands. My Baal is contral and desire, my god at times is my finanical security, my dependence is found in what I create, what I work for and provide for. The result is that I end up further away from God than I want to admit. The questions come, "Why God?" "Why are you doing this to me?" "Where are you?" There are seasons where God will give us exactly what we want in order that we realize how that thing, that dream or that person is not what satisfies. He allows us to go through the desert in order to allow us to be made aware of our desperation. He allows judgement in order to awaken us to the conseqences of choosing to remain outside His protection. Why? Because He is a tyrant. He certainly could be if He wanted, after all He's God. But no, that isn't it. It is because He is FOR us. Because His heart has forever been that we would know His love for us, that we would be in awe of His glory and that we would spend our lives making that glory known to the world. Our God is FOR us!
Jesus, I want to turn from depending on myself or other things. I want to rest in your presence, in your shade. Teach me to trust that you are for me.
