Mercy and Acknowledgment of God

“For I desire mercy (steadfast love), not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)

God wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Sacrifice and offerings were ways through which the Israelites expressed their love for God. But the Israelites began to worship other gods (commit spiritual adultery) while continuing the rituals of sacrifice and offerings without love for God. It's hypocrisy. Hosea 6:4 talks about their faithfulness fading away (disappearing). Without inward love/mercy and acknowledgment of God, the outward rituals are meaningless to Him. The sacrifice and offerings are worthless without an undivided heart that is completely devoted to God and that loves and acknowledges God.

People often acknowledge talents, accomplishments, hard work, success, beauty, intelligence, even luck/fortune and Mother Nature. But they fail to realize/recognize Who is the Giver of all blessings...Who created us and nature...Who is sovereign over all things, Who is behind all the miracles, etc. And we ourselves like to be acknowledged, don't we? That's why we need to be careful to remember that anything good in us is what the Lord has done for us, in us, and through us. If we fail to acknowledge God, our good deeds/service/giving/ministries ("burnt offerings") mean nothing.

God's mercy is so great and He desires us to extend His mercy to others. "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (Luke 6:36 ) We are to resemble/imitate Him, the merciful God. Jesus later used Hosea 6:6 to teach against the hypocritical Pharisees. Jesus said in Matthew 9:12-13, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." When the Pharisees complained to Jesus about His disciples picking and eating heads of grain on the Sabbath, Jesus said, "If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent." (Matthew 12:7) The Pharisees cared about the religious activities but neglected what really matters (what God desires). "The Lord says: 'These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.'" (Isaiah 29:13)

Remember...God looks at the heart. If our heart lacks steadfast love/mercy and does not acknowledge God, all our sacrifice and "burnt offerings" (any form of offerings) would be detestable to Him. External piety such as fasting, going to church, giving tithes, partaking the Lord's supper, etc. is no substitute for genuine love, mercy, faith, and obedience.

God of Restoration

Our God is God of restoration! God can and will revive and restore us in His time. "And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (1 Peter 5:10) No matter what trials and troubles we may have to go through, God never leaves us nor forsakes us. We can be confident in the goodness and faithfulness of God. No matter how deep we may have sunk, God will bring us up again. “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.” (Corrie ten Boom) "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." (Psalm 40:2) God will increase our honor and comfort us. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

God is in control of everything forever and ever. We are safe and secure in the loving arms of God who is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Remember that God's purpose realized in the future at times involves some pain and sufferings in the present. Understand this truth, embrace an eternal perspective, rely on God, and you'll be able to face anything. 

Choose Life

^"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your Life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

In these verses, Moses plainly presented before the Israelites options and consequences. Life or death? Blessing or cursing? Choosing life (= choosing God since He is our Life) brings blessing while choosing death (= rejecting God, choosing idols) brings cursing. Jesus says in John 11:25-26, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” Choosing life means choosing Jesus. If we love the Lord our God, obey Him, and cling to Him, we will receive His blessings (not necessarily material blessings, but definitely spiritual blessings). "He (God) gives life, preserves life, restores life, and prolongs it, by His power, though it be a frail life, and by His presence, though it be a forfeited life. He sweetens life by His comforts, and completes all in life everlasting." (Benson)

God gives us the freedom of making choices because He loves us and He wants to have a genuine loving relationship with us. Forced love is no love. God desires our sincere obedience that comes from our willingly devoted hearts. Even now, people can still choose God or choose idols (such as wealth, popularity, career, man-made religions,...anything but God). We all have an opportunity to affect the world (for good or for evil) through our decisions. Our children and others can tell about our commitment, values, and priorities by how we live (by the choices we make each day). We can live to gratify selves or to glorify God. We can choose to put ourselves first or put others first. We can choose to walk in God's way or our own way or the world's way. Life is filled with choices...from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep...day after day. Choices always have consequences which no one can escape...good or bad. We are accountable for our choices. Some consequences are more serious than others. Choose wisely/rightly! "Choice is a bittersweet gift. Those in Heaven will always be grateful they had it and will have it always, with no fear of sin or condemnation; those in Hell will always regret that they didn't exercise it differently." (Randy Alcorn)

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for loving me and giving me meaningful life and eternal life through Christ! I love You and desire to do Your will. Please enable me and my family to obey You, to choose Your will, Your ways at all times, and to cling to You in all circumstances. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Th Sin of Jeroboam

"He (Omri) followed completely the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, committing the same sin Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit, so that they aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by their worthless idols." (1 Kings 16:26)
Israel kept committing the "sin of Jeroboam" which is idol worship. God was angry at them. It's truly tragic when people do not learn from their own mistakes or from others' mistakes. No matter how much God demonstrated His love and care for Israel, His people continued to commit the sin of idolatry again and again.

"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.'" (Hosea 1:2) 
During Jeroboam II's reign, God chose and commanded Hosea, a prophet, to go marry Gomer, a promiscuous, defiled, unfaithful woman and have children with her, in order to depict God's grace, mercy, & faithful, unwavering love towards Israel in spite of Israel's idolatry, betrayal, and unfaithfulness to God. God wants us to love, seek, and follow Him wholeheartedly. When we love, seek, and follow anything else above/before God and/or in place of God, we commit spiritual adultery and idolatry.

"The harlotry of worldliness is in all the churches at this present moment. Thousands who name the name of Christ are taking possessions bestowed upon them by God and spending them in the pursuit of worldly ambitions and pleasures." (Morgan)

Prayer: Abba Father, please help me to have undivided love and loyalty to You alone and get rid of anything in my life that tries to pull me away from You. Please keep me away from worldliness. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.