Over the past couple of months I have grown increasingly convinced that even my best estimations of God’s love will always fall embarrassingly short.
I love the book of Hosea. If you are looking for a place to start reading about the faithful and all pursuing, perfecting love of God, you must read the book of Hosea. I am not going to recap the book of Hosea because it is so beautiful that any summary I could write would fall embarrassingly short of honoring its message. Stop what you are doing and read it right now.
But long story short- Hosea describes God’s unfailing love and faithfulness, despite our forgetfulness and pursuit of everything else but God. He waits and lets us gorge ourselves on those pleasures until we feel totally empty. He waits to pursue again, until we remember it is all about the Creator and not the created.
You may seek after your lovers, who gave you bread and water. But God’s love is so jealous and perfecting that He is going to knock down those idols until you see that it all was from Him and Him alone.
Hosea 2:
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal.
I easily forget that God is the provider of every good and perfect gift in my life. I start to look at the people whom I love so much and forget that it is only by his grace that I get to spend another day with each one of them. It is only by his gracious provision that I even know and deeply love those people.
God provides it all. He gives it all. It is all from Him and points back to Him.
“It was I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil.”
My heart is quick to idolize those I love around me. I forget that every astounding act of gracious love I experience from my husband, friends or family is all ultimately from Him.
Or on the flip side, when I feel any sort of tension or brokenness in any of those relationships I quickly forget that He is control. I forget that He sees the brokenness and is working in the midst of the hearts of all those involved. All pain is purposed. I am only called to honor other people above myself and trust Him.
Here is the thing. Only God is truly good. I have the best husband and family ever but they are not God. Our loved ones are all broken people. My responsibility is to love them more than need them. God has and will provide everything I need.
He is so good. Every beautiful miraculous thing we experience and those we love all come from Him. He is totally in charge and only He sees it all.
“It was I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil.”
Tough painful seasons come and they tempt us to take our eyes off the astounding goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. Well it is a trap. Do not believe it. Do not give it a second thought. Sit patiently before God. Seek him, do whatever you need to do to remind yourself of his holiness and goodness. Our feelings are so fleeting but the truth is He is always good and ALWAYS working.
That is true. That is the truest truth I know. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. It is all from Him. All for Him. All about Him. It has so little to do with me, you or us. He sees it all, knows it all and is working throughout it all.
“It was I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil.”
