God loves the unfaithful!
Our sins will affect the lives of those we have been called to lead.
December 5
Then the LORD said to me, "Go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the LORD still loves Israel even though the people have turned to other gods, offering them choice gifts."
Hosea 3:1
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God loves the unfaithful!
The prophet Hosea was sent to give the nation of Israel a message from God that was intended to shame them into returning to the LORD. They had turned away from Him and were worshipping worthless idols and God painted a picture of that in the book of Hosea as prostitution. As far as God is concerned anyone who turns away from the LORD is acting as a prostitute, selling their affection to someone that they are not married to.
God created us to be His; no one else’s. We are His special possession; whether we want to be or not. When we reject His love by rejecting His Son we are playing the harlot and committing adultery against God. A person with a hard heart doesn’t really care about that but those with a heart that is sensitive to God will be offended by that thought. That is good; it shows that there is hope for our restoration to a right relationship with our LORD.
Playing the prostitute doesn’t always mean that we have turned totally away from the LORD. It can also mean that we have just split our affection between God and something else. Only God can be the LORD of our lives; He must have the premier position in our lives. There are many things in my life that are important to me; my wife, my children, my church, my friends, my home, and many other things. All of these things take a distant second to God in my life. If any of those are elevated to a place equal or higher than God then I am committing spiritual adultery against God.
The cool thing about God is that no matter how unfaithful we are, He is always faithful. No matter how long or in what ways I might wander from the LORD, He is always faithful to take me back and to cleanse me of my adultery through repentance and forgiveness.
The book of Hosea is targeted at the entire nation of Israel, but it calls out the leaders of the nation as the cause of the prostitution in Israel. As leaders of our families, ministries, and churches we must never forget that our sins will affect the lives of those we have been called to lead. If we sin, then there is a high probability that they are going to sin as well. Where we lead, they will follow. If we lead them into sin like idolatry, we must realize that we will give an accounting for that before the LORD.
In a message that I heard recently it was said that the most important thing that a pastor needed to have for his church was his own personal holiness. To lead others toward holiness, we must first be holy. In our verse for the day we are reminded that God is faithful and loves us even when we have been unfaithful. Jesus, give the ability to stay close to you.