- Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12 – While I’ve lived my whole life in the Midwest, gardening and farming are a couple things I know almost nothing about. So when it said, “break up your fallow ground,” I had to look up what that meant. It means to work the hardened ground that was given time to rest for a year or longer so it can be ready to plant again. That hard ground hasn’t been ready for seed for awhile, and unless some hard work is done on it, it will never be ready for growing anything. Such can be our hearts, and such was the hearts of the people Hosea was speaking to. Due to their years of idolatry and disobedience, their hearts were harden to the Lord and unable to produce righteousness. It though wasn’t too late, they could choose to break up that fallow heart and ready it once again for God to grow something holy within them. Know today is a perfect day to break up your fallow ground if that’s your story. As I write this it’s Christmas, the day we celebrate our Savior being born. Yes, we may be hardened by sin, but Jesus has come and He can grow something beautiful from our hardened heart if we let Him. This Christmas, however fallow your ground is, begin the breaking up process by coming to the Lord and asking His help. He is ready to plant and to bring the rain, we just have to demonstrate to Him we’re ready to be used for Him. Merry Christmas! I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2949
- …and they shall say to the mountain, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.” (v.8b) Point of reference, often where the people would commit their sins of idol worship would be on the high places (such and mountains and hills). Crying out to the places of where they rejected God during the time of God’s judgement of their rejection. For you though, I have a different message. You can cry out to Him instead. It’s true that God is going to give punishment on you because you have sinned. That due to your mistakes and rejection of Him in your past (and present) that your chances of making it out are none. Through Jesus though, those chances take a drastic change for the better. Sin has to be punished; your choice is whether you pay the price or allow Jesus to. That’s the beauty of the different message for you. Not that the sin doesn’t have to be punished anymore, it’s just someone who loves you is willing to pay it for you. If that price has been paid for you already, you know the beauty of it. Take a moment today to thank Him for the salvation you’ve been blessed with. Having Jesus might not be your story…yet. Just know, He loves you and doesn’t want you to have to fear punishment and death. That why He did what He did on the cross for you. If you want Him take that burden of punishment on Himself for you, all you have to do is ask Him to. – Daily DEVO 33
- Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. Hosea 10:1 – The more they prospered, the more they turned away from God. Ironic isn’t it that as they received blessing, they turned further away from the one blessing them. Today challenge yourself to not be like them. Recognize the blessings in your life are from God. See that it’s because of Him that there is any good in your life. Then, because of that, turn to follow Him rather than using what He’s given to make a quicker escape. God gave you time today to use for Him. God gave your freedom from sin so you don’t have to keep turning back to it. Demonstrate your gratitude by walking closer to Him rather than turning away. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 560
- Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself. Hosea 10:11 – Keep in mind here Ephraim, Judah, and Jacob are all names of God’s people. Here God speaks of how He let Ephraim, part of His people, enjoy His fields and blessing without putting any large yoke of burden on them. They could enjoy life with God and all He asked was that they follow His ways. Yet instead, while in the midst of God’s field of blessing they took advantage of God’s good will and turned stubborn towards Him. Now God is saying it’s time to put a larger yoke on them. Not to destroy them but to guide them back to Him despite their stubbornness. What we should take away from this is that God is about our repentance not our destruction. God didn’t say He was going to slaughter the calf, He was simply going to put a yoke on them to remind them of where they were suppose to go and what they were meant to do. God’s heart for you is that we turn to follow Him and we enjoy the blessings of life from Him. We can turn and be stubborn towards Him, know though because He loves us He will still put in the effort to work through our stubbornness to redirect us back to Him. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1678
Daily DEVO 