Hosea's Passion for the Glory of God

     I can not recall ever being as challenged in my relationship with God as I am now. In the last week, God has used physical realities to teach me about Him. It’s been awesome. And kinda weird, really. So weird that I am not going to share. Anyway, I started reading Hosea and the same thing happens. I get to verse 3 and am so challenged I have to stop and ponder for awhile. 

 “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.’ So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” Hosea 1:2-3

I like that God uses physical realities to evidence spiritual realities. I think it would be a cool study to look at all the times in scripture He does that. I wonder if He did that with all the prophets? Or just a lot of them? But I love that it so clearly displays His heart. It makes Him known.

Hosea is an incredible guy. Seemingly sold out for giving his life to display God’s heart and passion. And this has exposed my heart… a part of me that is/was unwilling. It’s like I consider marriage and family are off limits. It’s like I have an entitlement mentality, an entitlement to happiness. (Though I know that is not the goal of marriage and family.) This came out as I wondered if I would be willing (when I was single) to marry someone that I didn’t love, respect, enjoy or someone that would not make me happy, for the purpose of making God known. No, I don’t think I would be willing. Not even, “No, I wouldn’t”, but “No, I wouldn’t even consider it.”

Not only does Hosea lay down his own desires for life but also his reputation. What must people have thought of him to marry a prostitute?

Just yesterday I was feeling ‘poor me’ and these verses totally put my situation into perspective. I am starting to do the finances instead of Austin. It is my first month doing it, so I have made mistakes and it takes a lot of time. I was feeling sorry for myself because of all the work I do around the house anyway on top of taking on his responsibility. Well, I let lies creep in about what he does and whenever lies are present, well, it just makes for a bad day. There does need to be balance in responsibilities/chores in a marriage but what needs to be addressed is my heart. Am I willing? Am I willing to lay my life down to serve Austin, for the purpose of making God known? For displaying His heart? Or am I going to live to serve the idol of happiness?

I guess all I can say is that God needs to do this work in me. It is not possible for me to make my heart willing. Willing to lay down my perceived right to happiness and ease.

Oh Lord, I desperately need You. I want my life to be on purpose for displaying You. Thank you for showing me areas I am/would be unwilling to trust You. Please make me willing. Change me so that there is nothing I would not trust You with. Help me surrender my “right” to happiness. I don’t want to put my desires above making You known. I want to live to make You known with how I am built, and I don’t want to put my own comfort above that. Please change me and give me the heart You want me to have.