Torn to Pieces

April 19, 2010

"For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
like a great lion to Judah.
I will tear them to pieces and go away;
I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.
Then I will go back to my place
until they admit their guilt.
And they will seek my face;
in their misery they will earnestly seek me." (Hosea 6:1-2)

Have you ever had your heart torn to pieces? Chances are, you have. As a Christian, the knowledge that God is completely in control is comforting, but I think it is important to explore/pray about the reasons why you may be going through this trial, so that the Lord can do a work in your heart and lead you in a closer walk with Himself.


Struggles and trials, first of all, are part of life in a fallen world. Sometimes, the Lord allows you to go through struggles in order to build perseverance, and with perseverance, hope. "Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope" (Romans 5:3-4). What is very interesting about the passage is that the Lord uses a situation of suffering (where there usually is a struggle with hoping in the promise of God) to bring about the very hope that we are struggling with. Wow! That is awesome!


But, I think the main thing to really pray about is whether or not the Lord is disciplining us because of sin in our life - sin that he wants to prune from our life as a loving Father. The Word says, "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will bear more fruit" (John 15:1). Similarly, in Hebrews 12, Scripture says, "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons...No discipline at the time seems pleasant, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TRAINED BY IT." This verse implies that discipline may/will come regularly, and we should welcome it as an opportunity to be trained by it into the woman that we already are spiritually in Christ Jesus, and we should be joyful because the Lord is treating us as His daughter. I would welcome any suffering if it means that I am the Lord's daughter. In fact, I welcome it with joy. That is what the Lord has been teaching me...to be joyful in suffering because He is teaching me a great lesson that will be revealed at the end of my suffering.


I read through Hosea this week, and if you have never read through it, you really should. It is probably my favorite book in the Old Testament because it shows the Lord's steadfast love to the most despicable of people. Basically, the Lord tells Hosea to marry a woman by the name of Gomer - yea, I know, not the coolest name ever. On top of it, Gomer is a harlot and the Lord tells Hosea that even though Gomer will go back to her other lovers and will forsake him, he must take her back and show her steadfast love. The story is a portrait of the Gospel and the love of the Father toward His rebellious people - that even though we, as his Bride, continue to sin and love our idols and look for satisfaction in places other than His steadfast love, He will be faithful and He will always call us back and restore us. The passage is so so SO SOO beautiful. What really is the most beautiful part is that the Lord says that He will tear His people to pieces because of their sin so that they humble themselves under Him and only want Him. After He has allowed her to be broken to the very core of her being, He will lead her (His Bride) out into the wilderness (where she will feel all alone) and He will make Himself known to her and He will speak kindly to her and cause her to love Him and walk with Him and restore her to Himself. It is the most beautiful love story I have ever heard and we can all have it with our Husband, our Maker.



"Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, slay her with thirst. I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. 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.' She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold—which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness. So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands. I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts. I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD. Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.' (Hosea 2)



How absolutly beautiful. Speechless.



Taking a break from blogging for a few weeks to seek the Lord on some sin in my life so that I can have a closer walk with Him. Praise Him for His Fatherly discipline that leads us to repentance. Praise God that He sometimes tears us to pieces, leads us into His Presence and restores our souls. :)



xoxo,

Ashley