HOSEA 5:15

“I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their distress they will search for Me.”

I remember when I was growing up I hated to hear these words: “Wait until your daddy gets home.” I knew what that meant. I had undoubtedly done something that required a spanking (yes, my parents spanked me). My mom would spank us sometimes, but she withheld the spankings for the more serious infractions for my dad. Man, o man. I didn’t like to hear that.

In today’s verse, the Lord has already dealt out the punishment. Now He is saying He will not return to them UNTIL they repent. They need to seek His face. They must search for Him. We know He is always ready to forgive, but it requires that we turn to Him. And when we do, He is ready and willing to take us back into His warm embrace.

APPLICATION

So, if we know that the Lord desires to forgive us, why do we wait so long to repent? Just like Judah or Israel, we think we’re okay. We think we can get by without confessing. We may think that we have done nothing wrong. After all, who is God that He should judge us, right? Wrong!

Without right and wrong, without good and evil, there is no direction in life. We have to pursue what’s right in the Lord’s eyes, not ours. There can only be one absolute truth. That is found in His Word. We can pretend that we know best, but we will find out that we don’t.

When we realize that our way of thinking is fleshly and is driven by our own desires, we should repent and ask the Lord to change our views. Listen to me, brother and sister. When He directs us, we can be sure we are doing the right thing. His goal is always to make us more like Jesus. That applies to everything we say and do. Will you trust Him? Will you return?

O God, I confess my selfish desires and actions as sin. I need You to point me in the right direction. I truly want to please You in all I do.