“Sow with a view to
righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness;
break up your fallow ground, for it is time to
seek the LORD until
He comes to rain
righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12 NASB
Hosea
ministered in the northern Hebrew kingdom, focusing on the spiritual corruption
of the time. He, along with Amos and Jonah called on Israel to repent and turn
to God in the hope that God might relent and withhold punishment. 1
In our
focus verse, Hosea instructed them to turn away from wickedness, (Sow with a
view to righteousness,) to receive God’s love (reap in accordance with kindness
;) to soften their hearts (break up your fallow ground,)
He then
stated a very important reason for the change they needed to make—(for it is
time to seek the LORD.) Hosea didn’t mean for this to be something done just
once but repeatedly, as they needed to. (until He comes to rain righteousness
on you.)
We are
sometimes like the people of the northern kingdom. When we see something wrong
in another person’s life, we think we are all right because we “don’t do that.”
Our only remedy for our short sidedness is to search our hearts and ask God to
help us as we look for qualities that we have that cause us to be less than
what God wants us to be.
Oh hi Cecelia, I'll hop over to Karen's blog as well. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by. I'm sure Karen will be glad to see you.
DeleteThanks for sharing this, Cecelia. So glad to host you on my blog! Happy to introduce you to more of my blogging friends. :)
DeleteKaren: You are welcome. Thank you for hosting me on your blog. It's been nice to meet your blogging friends.
DeleteYou are so right--we need to look into our own hearts, not judge others so we can feel smug.
ReplyDeleteI saw your interview on Karen's blog--what fun!
Jen: Thank you for stopping in. I have learned so much during this Lenten season. Yes, it's been fun being interviewed by Karen.
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