I recently found myself reading in Hosea. It is a beautiful story of how Hosea loves his wife, who is unfaithful to him. Not only unfaithful, she prostitutes herself – making herself difficult to love and an embarrassment to Hosea, a prophet.
But Hosea woos Gomer back and gives us a beautiful allegory of the way God loves His people. Hosea tells us the one thing God desires above ANYTHING else – – God wants our love.
“I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me, more than I want burnt offerings”. (Hosea 6:6, NLT)
The Living Bible says it this way… “I don’t want your sacrifices – I want your love.” God wants us to fall in love with Him. And stay in love with Him.
Our love for God will cause us to worship Him, which will cause us to know Him more deeply and intimately. Our worship of Him is rooted in our knowing to the core of our being how very much He loves us and cherishes us.
The other morning, I had music on while getting ready. The simple song, “Jesus Loves Me” began to fill room. The beauty and the power in those familiar words, which I have sung since I was a little girl, was overwhelming. Their profoundness striking deeply at that very moment. I may never be able to sing them again without remembering.
We will never be able to love others well until we know we are well loved by the very God who created us. And this “knowing” cannot be solely head knowledge. Our hearts need to know.
Saint Augustine put it this way ….
“To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek Him, the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement.”
God is writing a love story, a romance of each one of us.
Friday night, my husband and I went out to buy our Christmas tree. Stepping out of his truck, we began to walk up the aisle of trees. There before me it stood – our tree. Looking at my husband I said, “This is it. This is our tree.” To which he responded, “Let’s keep looking.” So we kept on looking. But none suited me. After a bit, my husband said, “Let’s go back and look at the first one again.” Giving the tree a second look over, we laughingly said to each other, “Yeah, this is it.” Jokingly, I said to him, “It was love at first sight for me.”
In that split second, Hosea and Gomer’s story, read early that morning, came flooding back. It hit me …
When we truly fall IN love with God and not just “love” Him, we will never be satisfied with anything but Him.
My hope is for each of us to realize anew the deep love of the Father for each one of us.
Today I am joining … Testimony Tuesday and Unite and Intentional Tuesday and True Story and #RaRaLinkup and Reflect .
The love of God for us is more than we can comprehend. I’m so glad I fell in love with Him at an early age.
Me too, Dayle! Thank you for stopping here.
Beautiful post.
Loved this. So good and so true. He loves me! I have been overwhelmed with a southern gospel song I heard on the radio a couple of weeks ago by Jeff and Sheri Easter. It overwhelms me with its simple truth and it is called Jesus Loves You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mEB0vflNbE I hope it blesses you as much as it does me. And of course Chris Tomlin’s is pretty wonderful too. Such a blessing to know He loves me and wants a relationship with me. ♥
Beautiful song, Nannette. It truly is overwhelming to realize the lengths to which our Savior was willing to go for each of us. So grateful you shared today!
I love that, Joanne … never satisfied with anything but Him. I love how the story of the tree drives that home because I’ve had my heart set on something and believed nothing else would compare. With Jesus nothing does compare. Thank you for sharing your heart at #IntentionalTuesday. : )
It has been such a blessing to get to know you as I joined you each week, Crystal. May you have a wonderful Christmas & a New Year filled with all the plans God has for you!
That’s what I count on forever-and-ever. Jesus is a huge blessing and I rely upon Him, day-by-day and when I’m heading to Heaven. Thank you for sharing.
.. A few years ago I read a book by Francine Rivers called Redeeming Love. I normally don’t read romance novels (I say that smiling knowing The Bible is the greatest one written!) however I couldn’t put it down. Just yesterday The Lord reminded me of this novel (which is roughly based off of Hosea and said don’t you know I love you like that. So amazing. Thank you for sharing this.. I know God is using your words to speak to me. Blessings always. Misty
Love this! This: “When we truly fall IN love with God and not just “love†Him, we will never be satisfied with anything but Him.” Love how you put words to this amazing relationship we enter into with God.
What a beautiful picture of Christ wooing us when we were not so lovely – – he loved us still. Thank you for sharing with us here at Tell me a Story.