Return to the Lord

 

 

 

{How does a relational God reveal experiential love to His Creation?}
 
{What does it truly feel  like to be loved by God?}

 

My children ask me questions like this and I can only give them answers that meet with my own experience and somehow I feel inadequate, yet, I know why they ask. I ask them myself.

{How can a Holy God love me a broken sinner?}

Some may laugh as I say this, but it is the very truth that rocks my core.  I can’t stand before God except for the blood of Christ. That song by Third Day, Trust in Jesus,  comes to mind, immediately, as I think of the words that I will say when I have to give an account for every word that proceeds out of my mouth.  “I trust in Jesus… my great deliverer, my strong defender, blessed redeemer, the Holy One.”

I am drawn to the broken, because, I am broken.

I love to read about the broken stories of redemption and faith in my Bible. Perhaps, because I, too, feel like the broken in need of redemption daily.  My struggle to overcome has often been reliant upon my own abilities and not that of the Redeemer. Still, he brings hope in like a fresh wind that blows aside the fear, even if for a moment, so that I can see  the extended hand;  so that I can hear that gentle whisper calling my name; so that I can feel the peace flooding my soul.  My senses begin to experience the invitation that love has extended.

There is a voice of one calling out to the beloved, reminding them that their worth, their future, is inextricably bound to something deeper and more profound than their shallow hearts can fully grasp….so we wait.

We wait together, while the healer moves in like the ocean’s tide, ebb and flow, moving in rhythm that is sure and patterned. Touching and turning the broken pieces till they fit back together, glued by the salve that pours out of the fountain of grace.

Grace is a precious reminder of my place, which rooted and anchored in hope.

 

Hosea followed God, even when it was not popular. He obeyed, even when it broke his heart.  He was diligent to pursue the depth of God’s grace as he witnessed and experienced His Love in a measure not formerly known to the generation he served. He questioned, though, What?. He wondered…often, Why? Why was God allowing the pain, the humiliation, and the hurt?  And still he was tempered with God’s compassionate heart.

Hosea chapter 6 is one of my favorite sections in this book of redeeming love.  As with much of the Bible there is a pattern for us to see, an image of His experiential love portrayed and poured forth for us to envision.   Let’s look together at verses 1-6.

“Come and let us return to the Lord,
for He has torn so that He may heal us;
he has stricken so that He may bind us up.
After two days He will revive us (quicken us, give us life);
on the third day He will raise us up that we may live before Him.
Yes, let us know Him;
let us be zealous to know the Lord.
His going forth is prepared and certain as the dawn,
and He will come to us as the heavy rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth.
O Ephraim, what shall I do with you?
O Judah, what shall I do with you?
For your wavering love and kindness are like the night mist or like the dew that goes early away.
Therefore have I hewn down and smitten them by means of the prophets:
I have slain them by the words of my mouth;
My judgments are like the light that goes forth.
For I desire and delight in dutiful steadfast love and goodness,
not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God more than burnt offerings.”

~ Hosea 6:1-6

 

Hosea married a woman of ill-repute, who went back to her sin repeatedly, yet He loved her. He loved her with a God-love that no human heart can truly fathom or understand.   This story strikes me hard, every time I read it.  I wonder, how often do I return to my sin… to that place that keeps me from the fullness of Love and Grace that are being held out only for me to accept?

  • {How often have I played the part of the flirt?} Courting disaster and inviting death to become the partaker of my attention. Sin brings death, there is no doubt.  Death of joy found only in His presence. (Ps. 16:11)
  • {How often have I squandered the gifts?} Shamefully awarding the gratitude to the undeserved, to the broken altars built up to another, lesser than the One True God.
 
He invites us to come, over and over.
 His repetition is purposed.
His light never extinguished or diminished because of the eternal hope within.

 

Yet he allows the tearing and the breaking so as our great Physician, he can have the privilege of Healer. To dry our tears and suture the jagged pieces in a finely bandaged application of Love’s thread woven distinctly, uniting our heart to His own.

 
  • Return to the Lord from the vacant places that idols have stolen.
  •  Return to the Lord that you may be quickened and raised up to Life.
  •  Recognize Him, in zeal approach with wonder and awe, being fully aware that He is always waiting to refresh you with a rain that can only bring forth abundance.
 

Let his words fully carve away the calluses that reside in your heart, so that he can mend the wounds with a salve that restores, not just scabs over leaving an ugly scar. Those tender places are meant to be dressed by mercy and grace, not judgment and harsh condemnation. That is not His heart.

 

His desire and delight is in mercy, love, and goodness, because He can be nothing less. He can’t partake in sin, but he will never withhold the righteousness promised through the Son’s sacrifice which paid the price for all…at once.

The invitation is open, it is extended to you.

 

You are invited to return to His embrace, bound in the depth of His grace, in order that you may be showered in with passion and become aware of the constant beating of His heart.  Let Him bind up the wounds and heal the barren places, so that those who see are aware that He is faithful.

 

 

 

 

Praying for you to return to grace and let healing flood every callused place.

Blessings and Prayer,

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