Hosea 11:4
“I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.”
God uses many different means to get man’s attention. Paul spoke of His kindness leading us to repentance and Jude wrote about saving some with fear of what is ahead, if they fail to come to Christ. Here, Hosea refers to the gentle love of God drawing Israel to Himself. Clearly, God desires all men everywhere to be saved. I wonder what we would discover if we looked at our lives through the lens of God? How many ways has He expressed His lovingkindness to us, as a means of drawing us to Himself?
Israel was hand selected by God, given great and precious promises, and then watched as the miraculous hand of God fulfilled these promises for them. They were redeemed from Egypt, protected in the wilderness, given the land and blessed with the very presence of God in their midst. The same is true of us. We were hand selected by God; Scripture speaks of us being chosen from before the foundations of the earth. We were redeemed by he precious blood of Christ and brought into a relationship with God, where He lives within us and reveals Himself to us. Daily, as we walk with Him, he drives things out of our lives that are harmful to us, and replaces them with things that glorify Him.
Sadly, Israel lost sight of the loving hand of God, and was drawn into the worship of other things. They soon drifted from God, and instead of being the recipients of His gentle love, they began to experience His chastisement. Instead of experiencing blessing, they felt the discipline of God, and soon lost the land of promise, and became slaves to their sin.
Don’t allow sin to draw you away from the blessing of living under the gentle love of God. Whatever temptation you are facing, it is not worth losing the living water that flows out of being in sweet communion with Christ.
Pastor Jim
Jim Gallagher 