- What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Hosea 6:4 – Hosea begins the chapter with seeking to lead Israel in what to say to the Lord. He directed them to return to the Lord, to press on to gain knowledge of the Lord, and to have faith the Lord would heal them. While giving of their offerings and sacrifices were still taking place, what God didn’t have was their heart. Their love for God was like a morning cloud or the morning dew. Both certainly present, but so temporary and fleeting the moment any heat comes their way. God was making it clear such a love for Him wasn’t what He was looking for. He wasn’t looking for a love that came and went. He wasn’t looking for more sacrifices from them; God wanted them. Today God wants you too. Your money and your gifts isn’t what God longs for. God wants you to first be about giving yourself wholly over to Him. He wants us to return and to consistently grow in our knowledge of Him. Is that though what the Lord has from you? Is He finding a wholehearted follower, or simply a Christian that can only be determined as a Christian by their social media profile page? God deserves our best, let’s pursue Him as the greatest thing in the universe. There is where we can begin to see the promises of blessing begin to take shape in our story. I love you, but Jesus loves you more than – Mac – Daily DEVO 2945
- For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (v.6) I will never claim to understand Brandi like I should; she’s far too awesome for me to understand her completely! After about three years of marriage with her though, I’ve learned some things. One is she’d much rather me know her than treat her. Sure, I could break the bank getting teddy bears and chocolate every day and she wouldn’t refuse them, but what she’d rather have is a husband that is in growing in his love for her and striving to know HER more every day. That’s relationship goals. That’s the relationship goals God is seeking with you. Your offerings are great, your times of service are wonderful, but what He truly longs for is you. He didn’t die on the cross so you’d have a chance to give a bigger offering; He did all that so He could be close to you like He always planned for it to be like. See, God is pleased with your willingness to give unto Him, even encourages that, but let the first gift you present to Him be you. Let the start of your offering be given over to growing in your love for God and your knowledge of Him so you and Him have a deeper relationship at the end of each day. What comes out of that – tithes, offerings, service, Etc. – that will grow as you grow with Him. Because now I know I don’t have to buy chocolate for Brandi for her to be happy, I do it because I love her and enjoy eating the chocolate with her. Same way with God. As we get to know HIM, our giving will come out of our love for Him and we’ll realize everything we give we get to enjoy right along with Him. – Daily DEVO 29
- Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. Hosea 6:1 – If someone is tearing you apart and striking you, I strongly encourage you think wisely about staying in that relationship….that is unless they are a doctor doing their job. Sometimes a doctor will have to tear apart scar tissue that we’ve allowed to grow or strike a bone to re-break it after we’ve let it grow back wrong. We all realize the doctor isn’t wanting to cause us pain, but he will in order for us to be truly healed. So will God. We can let our lives end up like our bodies can, filled with scar tissue and bones growing wrong. Maybe that looks like bad relationships or even twisted ways of viewing yourself. Whatever the case God isn’t afraid to break the bad things in our life in order for us to be truly healed. Keep this in mind, not all pain will God remove because sometimes He allowed it so He can strip us away from what’s killing us and bring the true healing we need. I love you, but Jesus loves you
- “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Hosea 6:3-4 – In our pursuit of God let’s be sure it’s a true, steadfast pursuit of Him and not a superficial one. Yes, it looks like God’s people for a moment had a heart to draw closer to their God. Yet we see God knows how fading their pursuit of Him is. Like a morning cloud that will go away early on in the day leaving nothing behind. What can we relate our pursuit of God to? An unmovable rock that remains even through the toughest storms or like a morning cloud that even just the touch of heat causes it to fade away? Please don’t see this as a guilt trip on anyone but simply as an note to be real with ourselves on how true our pursuit of God is. If a little heat in life can cause it to fade and disappear then we need to invest more time into our life with Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1674
Daily DEVO 