I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. Hosea 5:15 – This chapter is an eye opener to the scary reality that is connected with a refusal to turn form our sin. God withdraws from us. Not in the sense that we may immediately think, for a God who is everywhere can’t suddenly not be around you. What this withdrawal means is that his Hand is temporarily removed. The hand that guides, the hand that protects from the enemy, the hand that provides blessing…is lifted for a time. We see over and over in scripture when God choose to lift His hand off His people chaos and distress followed. But was God’s heart for His people to be crushed and isolated from Him? Never, not even in the times when His hand was lifted. As we see in our verses above, the key word is “until.” God would step away until the His people realized the wrong of their sin and turned back to following Him. If the people wanted to sin and reject Him, He would let them, but they would face the results of that choice of a life without Him. Yet if they would see the folly of that choice and turn once again to the Lord, they would find Him ready to once again wrap them in His hands. Whether it’s with the people of God in Hosea’s day or even your own life, God’s purposes behind what He does is for us to always be drawing near to Him. We can choose the path after sin, and God will let us, but we’ll also be allowed to see the fruit of such a choice and it’s not good. Instead, learn from our past and learn from these scriptures. Reject the tempting path of sin that leads to our distress and lean in after the pursuit of God. Seek His face with all your heart and you will find Him. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2944
Question To Ponder: Think back to a time when you were chasing after sin. How did your closeness with God feel?
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