I got on a Hosea kick over the summer.  I wrote a handful of posts from some verses that knocked me over. God really spoke, and I really listened.  But somewhere in there, I must not have applied what I learned.

Three months later, I am back in this book.  I am rereading it and studying up on the historical context in order to teach it to other women.  I taught chapters 1-3 yesterday, and all I keep thinking is, “I am in the exact same place I was over the summer.  I haven’t moved.  I haven’t grown.”  And then I shovel various and sundry pieces of Halloween candy into my mouth.

The verses that are ringing loud and clear in my ears this morning are from chapter 2.  God says,

“Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace.  She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’  Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.  She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.  Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.'”  Hosea 2:5-7

God loves us too much to let us continue to chase after other things besides Him.  He is what is best for us; He loves us too much to let us settle for anything else.

Nuts.

And wow.

All at the same time.

When we insist on chasing after “other lovers”, God will wall us in.  He will limit our options.  He will take away everything that we depend on – everything we love – more than Him.  Slowly, but surely, we will find ourselves walled in with nowhere to turn but back to Him.

And this is all by design – God’s design.

When all of our crutches are gone, when we’re like turtles on our backs, we suddenly become a lot more agreeable.  We’re walled in – we have nowhere to go.  When time is all we have, we take the time to try to understand where God is coming from.  We start to believe that God really is what we’ve wanted all this time; God really is the only One who can fulfill us.

And once we start to believe this, we start to act like we believe it.  We begin to pursue God in lieu of our “other lovers”.

Trust the process.