I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
Hosea 14:4 (NIV)
Father God I come before You this morning, starting this week off acknowledging my waywardness. Though I try to do right, I continually fall short. Even now, as I pray this prayer my mind drifts off to other things that are vying for my attention. I can see how I can be in some ways like Ephraim in Hosea where You declared, “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning (Hosea 8:11).” The very things that I set aside to honor and worship You become themselves idols, elevated to a place where they were never intended to be. Whether it is church, Bible Study, daily devotions, or prayer, they easily cease from being a tool or avenue whereby I access You and come into Your presence and become the focus itself. I can see that my heart is prone to creating idols. I so desperately need You!
Thank You for sending my Savior and the Holy Spirit to heal my waywardness. The fact that I can see this in me is a testimony to the work They are doing in me.
- By Christ’s sacrifice You have forgiven all my sins – past, present and future – and have showed me Your everlasting love. He is the full and complete evidence of Your love for me. I am hidden in Him, and when You see me You see Him. He did for me what I could not do for myself, and has become for me my Lord and King.
- By the work of the Holy Spirit I am given glimmers of me as You see me, the eyes of my understanding opened by His divine sight, and I am compelled not only to confess, but also to make the changes that are needed in the moment. He works in me both to will and do Your good pleasure. And more importantly, because of what He has wrought in my heart, it is my ultimate desire to please You.
Father, You promised that You would heal my waywardness. And You have. And the good news for me is that the success of Your remedy is not measured by my ability to stay the course. On this side of eternity I will continue to stumble. No. It is measured by the finished work of Jesus, Who did what I could not do and secured for me what I could not earn. I’m covered in His blood, my waywardness divinely healed, and I am now eternally Yours. Thank You for this all-encompassing, all-surpassing love! Amen!