God Still Wants To Marry You...

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

Hosea 2:19-20

God wants you to know today that He loves you… Despite how many mistakes you have made or the direction your life may be headed; we are reminded today that God wants to have a relationship with you, He wants to form a union with you that will last forever… The word of God tells us in Paul’s first epistle to the church of Corinth that love “is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” I am sure that there are things that you have done in life that you are not proud of, there are things that have happened in your life that you don’t want people to know; however, understand today that the Lord isn’t holding your past over your head; He is looking beyond your faults and wants to fulfill all your needs… Love sees the beauty amidst the mess, it sees the diamond in the rough and the worth surrounded by unworthiness… God wants to commit to you through whatever you have gone through or are going through… Yes you have messed up, yes you have fallen short, yes you have gone the wrong way and made some bad choices, but even still don’t let the enemy lead you to believing that there isn’t a better tomorrow or a brighter future for you… God betroths you; He is standing with open arms, He desiring to give you another chance and wants to bring righteousness, lovingkindness and mercies into your heart and into your home… This is why Hosea starts our focus verses by saying “And I will betroth thee unto me for ever…” Hosea was a minor prophet that was given a charge to present unto the house of Israel… Today, through all the ups and downs that life had presented, through all the bad choices and decisions that the children of God had made, the Lord informs the Israelites that through it all He still has plans to be reunited with them… The Israelites had worshipped other Gods, they had spoken out against the True God, they had strayed away from His will, and they had taken on a “what have you done for me lately” attitude and God being a loving and merciful God still remains faithful through all their disobedience… When I examine my life, I begin to see just how much I have in common with the Israelites… When I begin to look over my life, I notice how much I have disobeyed God’s will, I realize how much I have strayed away from His calling, I understand how much I have allowed the ways of this world to cut me short of reaching unimaginable heights in the kingdom of God… Even when I think of all the wrong turns I have made, even when I reflect on all the temptations that I have given into, Hosea reminds me that God still loves me, God still values me, God still wants to bless me… This is good news for us today; this passage tells me that despite my faults, despite my flaws, despite my mistakes God has a plan to be reunited with me… When I read this passage I think of the prodigal son and how he ran off with his inheritance, blew it miscellaneously and ended up eating with pigs… There are a lot of us that have run off on wild tangents in this world, we have spent all we had physically, we have given ourselves away physically, and we have sold our lives short and ended up feasting with pigs…

We, like the prodigal son have been down and out, but just like the prodigal son we can go back to our father… The bible says when the son was a ways off, the father some him and ran to him and kissed him… It doesn’t matter where you are in life, it doesn’t matter what you have done in life, when you utter the words “I will go back to my father” God will come running even when you’re a “ways off”, God will pick you up even when you still may have the smell of pigs on you and cleanse you of your unrighteousness… In the first chapter of Hosea, the Lord called Hosea to marry an adulterer… Hosea was wed to a woman who was known to be unfaithful and basically prostituted her life away… It’s important to note that in our lives today we are that prostitute and God is Hosea… Even though we have made mistakes, even though we have done the unthinkable God desires to join with us in union to live together for all eternity… God join those two in marriage to strengthen Hosea, but also lift up this woman… Knowing what God called Hosea to do let’s me know that God still loves us and wants us to be transformed and taken to new levels in Him… Hosea tells us today that God will marry us; we will be with Him and He with us through thick and thin… God knows we aren’t perfect and just like any marriage He understands that their will be good days and bad days, but notice the levels that we will be married to Christ… “I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies…” We are justified and declared co-heirs with Christ through our union with Him… The unrighteous are now found righteous, those under sin’s penalty have not had their judgments removed and God’s lovingkindness and mercies have paved the way for all to live abundantly blessed and happy lives… The Lord desires a bride to walk this earth with Him, to betroth in righteousness means that God will build your faith in Him, but you must be honest in your marriage to God and walk accordingly… God will marry you in judgment, the term love hurts comes to mind here, God will be upfront with you and allow you to learn from your mistakes and experience consequences… God marries in lovingkindness, He will allow you to experience pains, but will always be by your side bearing the load with you… God marries in mercy, even though you experience difficulties in life, the word says He will never put more on us than we can bear and that His mercies are new every morning… Things could always be worse than they are! God will transform your life, He will be faithful to you no matter how far off you may appear to be; He will bring about the expected end He has for your life and you will know that He is God, the Lord and ruler of all! Sometimes things will be difficult in this life, sometimes things will be complex in this life, but we take pride in knowing that this marriage will never end and we will be with Jesus through eternity…

BE BLESSED!!!