I have been going through the book of Hosea for a little bit now. If you have watched some of my videos then you might know that God used a teaching series when I was in High School on this book to change my life. I had run as fast as possible in the opposite direction from God. I had gone looking for love and acceptance from the world in stead of God, and that had brought me into things and choices that at the time I believed permanently separated me from God. I didn’t believe that God could possibly love me or want me back. That teaching series changed my perspective on that!

God promises to restore you!

But the other day I was reading chapter 6 and a couple of verses really hit me. Hosea 6:1 says,“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces; now He will heal us.” This really spoke to me because I think it sometimes feels like we are be torn to pieces. We make choices the bring consequences, hurt, and pain into our lives. God uses those things to bring us back to Him. They can be painful and very hard to go through, and God doesn’t want that for us. But His heart breaks when ours does. He does use those hard things to bring us back though.

Notice the end of that verse, “now He will heal us.” But God loves us too much to leave us broken. When we come back to Him He accepts us with open arms. And if we let Him, He w

ill heal the broken parts of our heart. Healing is hard, it takes time, and it is painful, but in the end He walks through it all with us and it’s worth it! God keeps His promises and He promises to heal us.

God wants a personal relationship with you!

Not only does God want to heal us, but He also wants to be part of our lives. He wants to have a personal relationship with us. Hosea 6:6 says, “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.” God wants us to love Him because of a relationship with Him not because of religious duty. He doesn’t want our faith to be without feeling. When he restores it’s not just healing that is accomplished. He brings us into a relationship with Him. That relationship is built of genuine faith-reading God’s Word, praying, a

nd spending time with God. Our faith shouldn’t be reading His word out of fear or out of a sense of duty. Yes, we will sometimes go through periods where we are just going through the motions, and not out of authentic relationship with God.

But we shouldn’t be content with that. We should ask God to bring the authenticity back in our relationship with Him. And God is faith to do just that. His desire is for that. If His desire is for us to have an authentic relationship then He won’t leave us where there isn’t authenticity. We just have to keep pursuing Him, and keep asking Him to draw us closer to Him. And He is faithful to do just that!

Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Nothing we can ever do can make us lost from Him for forever. He desires to have a deep relationship with Him and for us to love Him and know His amazing love.