SOAP Hosea 14: Redemption - Always Available

Redemption - Always Available

Hosea 14

If you want to live well, make sure you understand all of this. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll learn this inside and out. God’s paths get you where you want to go. Right-living people walk them easily; wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling.

Hosea 14:9 MSG

I read this chapter a few times, especially after reading the first sentence of this verse. Do I understand “all of this”?

I try to understand God’s greatness, God’s goodness, God’s majesty, God’s jealousy.

So be careful not to break the covenant the Lord your God has made with you. Do not make idols of any shape or form, for the Lord your God has forbidden this. The Lord your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:23-24 NLT

It’s amazing to me, though, how quickly my attention can be diverted to shiny things. I make myself feel better by calling them shiny things….but the shiny things can easily become idols. Idols aren’t always big. They aren’t always pretty. They don’t always feel dangerous. They do always make the distance between God and myself greater than it should be. They get in the way.

What has been getting in your way?

It’s a hard question. Once recognized, it can feel even harder to know what to do about it.

I am thankful for the guidance that God can give. We can always ask for redemption and we can receive it. We can ask for direction and we can receive it.

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

Psalms 119:105 NLT

When we study God’s Word daily (yay for SOAPing), Jesus becomes larger and the shiny things become smaller.

PRAYER: Thank you, Jesus, for Your Word. Everyday there is something new, something to be discovered. Thank you for using Your Word to show the way. Help us, Jesus, to live well and learn to apply Your ways to our lives, every day, every hour, every moment. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!