My Thoughts on Today's Readings---
(Hosea 11:1-12:14)
I don't doubt that God is often involved in my life without my being aware of His presence and interventions. However, I ought to look for "God-sightings" in my life.
"But they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them." (verses 3, 4).
There are times when I refuse to repent, even fail to acknowledge I have sinned. Do I consider myself a person of prayer, yet without giving much thought to exalting God in the way I live and in what I say?
"Because they refused to repent. . .Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him" (verses 5, 7).
Although I am deserving of God's "terror" the Holy One is sympathetic toward me.
"My sympathy is stirred. I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man. The Holy One in your midst; And I will not come with terror" (verses 8, 9).
I want to walk with God regardless of what others may do.
"Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God, even with the Holy One who is faithful" (verse 12).
I am so blessed to have the Lord as my God (the God of Ephraim) and to freely own a copy of His word!
"But I am the Lord your God, ever since the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents (temporary dwellings during the Feast of Tabernacles that reminded Israel & us that this world is not our home) as in the days of the appointed feast. I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets" (Hosea 12:9-10).
(Psalm 139:17-24)
Are the thoughts of God (His written word) precious to me? I want to form the habit when I awaken each morning of thanking God that He is always with me!
"How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You" (v. 17-18).
My continual prayer ought to be verses 23-24.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
(Proverbs 29:22)
Do I recognize when I am full of anger and where it leads?
"An angry (woman) stirs up strife, and a furious (woman) abounds in transgression."
(Jude 1-25)
How often am I really aware of my status with God?
"To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ" (v.1).
How much mercy, peace, and love do I multiply to others?
"Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you" (v.2).
Am I aware of times when it is necessary and when it is my duty to encourage someone to remain faithful to God? Am I "contending earnestly" for the faith?
"I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (v.3).
Am I familiar enough with God's word to know when someone is denying the Lord and the Word of God?
"For certain men have crept in unnoticed. . .ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 4).
Do I tend to forget that God destroyed unbelievers after delivering Israel from Egypt and that the angels who rebelled against God are reserved in chains for judgment?
"But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day" (v. 5-6).
How does my attitude toward authority compare with Michael the archangel? Do I know my place?
"Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'" (v. 8-9).
Am I aware that God has planned from the beginning to deal with the ungodly?
"Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, 'Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" (v.14-15).
Am I growing in faith and in my relationship with God?
"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (v.20-21).
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