The Desert Hosea

Hosea 2:14-16(I love the Message Bible here)
14 “And now, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to start all over again.
I’m taking her back out into the wilderness where WE had our first date, and I’ll court her. 15 I’ll give her bouquets of roses. I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She’ll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt. 16 “At that time”—this is God’s Message still—“you’ll address me,‘Dear husband!
’Never again will you address me,
‘My slave-master!’

So many times we hear people talk about how they are in a tough spot in life.  As I did, they wonder where they left God, where they went wrong, to get into their current struggle.

Did you notice it though? God says if you’re walking with Him, you’re going to the desert together.

*SOMEtimes we do face trials and struggles as ways to bring us back to God.
*OTHER times we face trials and struggles because we ARE walking with God and the first place He heads is the path of most resistance.

It is in the tough times – in the struggles – that we find times of hope, our peace, or security in Christ.
It is where we begin to form an experiential  knowledge of God. It is where everything changes.

My mistake in the past during the tough times was that I was spending the season I am in, waiting for the next season instead of BEING where I am! Had to learn to Bloom no matter where I am planted!

The Purpose of the Desert by Os

Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. – Hosea 2:14

If you have an important message to convey to someone, what is the best means of getting the message through?
Have you ever tried to talk with someone who was so busy you could not get him to hear you?

Distractions prevent us from giving our undivided attention to the messenger.

So too, God has His way of taking us aside to get our undivided attention.

For Paul, it was Arabia for three years; for Moses, it was 40 years in the desert; for Joseph, it was 13 years in Egypt; for David, it was many years of fleeing from King Saul.

God knows the stubborn human heart. He knows that if He is to accomplish His deepest work, He must take us into the desert in order to give us the privilege to be used in His Kingdom.
In the desert God changes us and removes things that hinder us.
He forces us to draw deep upon His grace.
The desert is only A season in our life. When He has accomplished what He wants in our lives in the desert, He will bring us out.
He has given us a mission to fulfill that can only be fulfilled after we have spent adequate time in preparation in the desert.
*Fear not the desert, for it is here you will hear God’s voice like never before. *It is here you become His bride.
* It is here you will have the idols of your life removed.
* It is here you begin to experience the reality of a living God like never before.

Someone once said, “God uses enlarged trials to produce enlarged saints so He can put them in enlarged places!”
(End os)

In our weakness, we are strengthened by the Spirit of the living God.
How do we react when things don’t seem to be going very well?
We ALL need the encouragement of God’s Word: ‘Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph’ (2 Corinthians 2:14).

When everything seems to be going wrong, we need to be reminded of God’s Word: ‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us’ (Romans 8:37).

When we feel so weak, we receive strength ‘from God’. We are strengthened by ‘the Spirit of the living God’ (2 Corinthians 3:5, 3).

We must learn to look beyond our circumstances to our Saviour.
In Him, we see ‘the surpassing glory’. As we look upon ‘the glory of the Lord’, we are ‘changed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory’ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

In life’s many hard times, may God help us ALL to see what He is doing in our lives and not only what we think is happening to us.

He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me (2 Samuel 22:20).

Get 2 thoughts here:
1. I love David’s description of God’s deliverance of him. David was surrounded at times in battle with nowhere to go or no room to move.

When we are under attack or feel like the enemy is all around  it feels very much like we have no room to move or even air to breathe.
We even feel isolated and that any step we take would potentially take us over the edge.
David knew how this felt and describes the feeling of what it’s like to be FREE and get back out into the open with plenty of space and room and even said that God did that because He delights in him.
God wants to rescue us and give us room to breathe and stretch our legs and run around free in Him all because he delights in our relationship with Him. What an amazing and loving God we serve.

2. David repented from past sins and God forgave him.
David knew that God doesn’t remember our past as the enemy often likes to remind us of; we repent God forgives.
David MOVED ON to a FREE and OPEN relationship with God believing in FAITH that He was (Just as God viewed him) righteous before Him.
WE ALL need to allow God’s forgiveness to penetrate deeper into OUR heart and accept that He views US as righteous and loves US and will reward US as a result.

God thank you so much that when you say you forgive you truly mean it. Help me resist the enemy’s lies that would say I am not good enough to serve in your kingdom!
1 JN 4:4  My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world.
Amen Yes-WE DO fight From victory-not for victory–Jesus, at the Cross Paid In Full for EACH one of us!!
Let’s continue to encourage one another each day through our struggles and pains till that Great Day our Lord returns!!!!!