Working Together

Hosea 11:9 - No, I will not unleash My fierce anger.  I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal.  I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.

Despite Israel's repeated idolatry, God loves them too much to destroy them like they deserve.  The truth of God's accusations is working together with His grace to redeem them.

In this whole chapter of Hosea, God is telling Israel how much He has loved them, and that the more He showed them His love and grace, the farther they fell away from Him in idolatry (verse 2).

God's truth and grace always work together.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us that we will know the truth and the truth will set us free (John 8:32).  What is the truth?  The truth is that we all fall short of God's righteousness, but He still loves us to no end and He still pursues an intimate relationship with us.  Grace is the tricky part, though.  God's grace is what redeems us when we believe (Ephesians 2:8).  You see the truth of God's grace redeems us.  And the truth of our sin is what leads us to seek God's grace.

In his book Pursued, Jud Wilhite tells us, "Truth without grace will leave us to wallow in guilt and condemnation" (Chapter 8).  If we know the truth of our shortcomings, and don't seek the truth and grace of God's love and redemption, we just sit and wallow in self-pity.  That is hardly healthy.  Wilhite also says, "The combination of grace and truth is life giving" (Ch. 8).  That's what God gives us when we not only accept His truth and grace, but live it as well.  We live it by sharing the truth of God's grace with others.  We work together with the Holy Spirit to spread the Gospel message to everyone we can.

Dear Father, thank You for showing me Your truth and setting me free by Your grace.  I am so grateful that I don't have to be weighed down by my guilt and shame, because the combination of Your truth and grace have worked together to free me from my bondage to sin.  I pray for those that haven't taken that step of faith and accepted the truth that You love them.  My prayer is that they will see that You want nothing more than to set them free of their own bondage by Your love and grace and have the intimate relationship with them that You have always desired.  In Jesus' name, Amen!



God Bless!!!