'Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us, he hath smitten, and he will bind us up' (Hosea 6:1).
Amos the prophet was speaking to the people of Israel because of their apostasy and idolatrous living, as God had pronounced severe judgement upon them. God said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee..."(Hosea 4:6). What are we doing in our lives, that will make God reject us? God is longsuffering and gracious. He knew one day he would return to Israel with his arms open, because of his love for them. But they would first have to endure the pain and suffering and come to acknowledge and accept Jesus as Lord. Hosea could rejoice with Israel, that there was hope for them. One day God would return and revive them, and pour out His blessings on them. When we see how longsuffering and gracious God had been with backsliding Israel, we take comfort and have hope. We too have wandered from God time and time again, as we strayed from the path of righteousness. We sometimes find ourselves caught up with the worldly attractions of life and its careless attitude to the things of God, that God has no pleasure in. But we have a merciful, loving and forgiving God, who is calling us to repentance. No matter how far we have strayed from God, his promises are sure. He will rebuke and chastened us when we disobey his laws and precepts; and allow us to be wounded and hurt when we have rejected him; but His promises are true, as we trust in Jesus our Saviour and remain faithful to Him. He will graciously help and heal us. Let us seek the Lord, acknowledge and confess our sins and seek pardon from him. We must also seek to encourage others to do the same and to have faith and confidence in Christ as they come to repentance. We will be able to say, let us return to the Lord, because he has torn us that he may heal us; and smitten us in order to bind up our breaches. We need to turn to God with a broken and contrite heart, allowing him to convert our hearts and souls; as we become healed from the wounds of sin and iniquity by the greatest Physician ever.
Have a wonderful day and a blessed weekend 🌹🌹
'But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33). The Lord is our Provider and knows all that we are in need of before we even ask. We do not need to worry or fret ourselves about what we shall eat or drink. Our Father in heaven will take care of these things we need. We are told by Jesus, 'To seek first the kingdom of God.' What does that mean? It means we should lean on, and trust in the grace of Jesus Christ. We should repent of our sins and have a desire to turn away from it. We should seek to put God first in our praise to Him, in our worship of Him, to put our total trust in Him and to rely on Him rather than ourselves or others. We need to seek Him first in our reassurance and acknowledging who He is and what He can do. We also need to seek God's righteousness by loving our neighbors and feeding the poor and destitute, seek justice for the vulnerable. We should put God's plan and...
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