Love Should Look Like Jesus

Hosea 3:1-5  -  The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."  So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.  Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you."  For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.  Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

 

This chapter of Hosea is short and packed with a straight on message to all of us.  Love above everything…even if it involves forgiveness unimaginable to our heart.  God told him to take his unfaithful wife back….despite how many times she had been with other men.

 

My mind immediately thought of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 again….especially 4-7…. “ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 

I admit…as usual that I needed the reminder of what God’s love should look like when other’s look at my life. I fall prey to the swiftness and impatience that makes most decisions in the world today.  It has taken me the last five years to realize that a daily time with God is the most important thing I can do every day.  It may just be a simple chapter a night….and a short 45 minutes of writing each morning…..but it keeps me grounded in the faith that I need each day to fight off most of satan’s tricks.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that I need you more than anything.  Forgive me for the time that I have focused too much of my time on me.  Help me to spend more and more of my time each day loving others the way you did….exactly as Paul outlines for me in his writings.  Amen.