From Master to Husband - God's Divine Work in our Lives

I believe hidden in the heart of God is an unrelenting longing and desire for the hearts of His people. Now that might sound very shallow and we've all heard it before, but has this truth really penetrated us in a way that causes us to have an understanding of God's heart and the motive behind what He allows to happen to us in our lives?
I've been studying Hosea. It shows the struggle between Israel and God - His heart of love towards a people that are, what He calls, living like a prostitute. They are going after other loves and God creates certain obstacles in their lives that causes them to turn and love Him again. This can be seen in our lives as well. The fact is that God wants to be the very center and core of our lives. We can see a pattern of how God draws us back from the times that we turn from Him and give our hearts to other things. Let's look at it!
God tells the prophet Hosea to find and marry a prostitute. Can you imagine how crazy this must have sounded to Hosea? Not only did God want him to marry her, but to have children with her. God said this would be a sign of the love that He had for the nation of Israel. It is a picture of God's loves towards us as well. There are times in all of our lives that we seem to stray from God. Other things look better than God. They bring more pleasure to our lives, and at the time they satisfy our hearts - but only for a short time. For some of us it is outward sin that keeps pulling us away - the drawing of old patterns that sneak up from our past. For others it is finding ourselves in a place of boredom and apathy spiritually. We have fallen asleep on the inside and our hearts no longer have the fresh love and sincerity it once had. Yeah, we're going to church, but inside we are deader than roadkill on an Oklahoma highway. Both are dangerous and both are a reality in every person's life. No one on earth ever stops struggling in one or both of these two areas. It takes time and effort to keep our hearts tender before God. There are so many distractions - not necessarily bad distractions, that allure us away from our first love in Him. Hosea was married to Gomer the prostitute. They had kids together. They lived together. Yet, this was not good enough for God. He doesn't want us to be a live in roommate, He wants your heart. He doesn't want us to use Him for what we can get from Him that will bring properity to our lives - like the attitude of "what's in it for me." He wants a relationship with us like a picture of a healthy marriage - one that sticks through thick and thin because the bottom line is, the man and woman love each other. When another man or woman comes to draw us away from our one love, we will close the door real fast becasue our hearts are set on one love, our husband or wife. That's how God wants it. He wants our hearts, not just our money, our time, or showing up at church three times a week. That's not enough to satisfy the heart of God.
So God has a problem. He is in love with the nation of Israel, yet Israel no longer acknowledges Him. What does God do in our lives to draw us back when we are in this place? He shows how he works in the book of Hosea. In chapter 2:6,7 it says, "Therefore I will block her paths 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 of than now." He will block her path with thornbushes. Have you ever been on a path where life seems to be going great, and all of a sudden trouble seems to overtake you. Nothing is going right. Sometimes it's the enemy, but sometimes it's God drawing us back to Him - it's the discipline of the Father and His love wanting to woo us back to our first love. Psalms 139:5 says, "You hem me in behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me." There are times where God hems us in on every side. We cannot escape Him. I don't know where this verse is, but there is a verse that says, "All my fountains are in you." We all at different times drink from other fountains of pleasure. We are creatures of pleasure - we long for it, we look for the next best thing that will give our hearts pleasure. We are like this because are made in the image of God. God's heart is full of pleasure. But, He is a jealous lover and He wants our hearts to take pleasure in Him. Some may be reading this and think "oh great, what a life. Taking pleasure in God." But I believe in our generation God is releasing the pleasure of God's heart over us and the message that the fountain in His heart tastes better than any other fountain. We will be the generation that says, "All my fountains are in you." But, this won't come to the heart that is asleep in religion. It will come to those who are pursuing Him wholeheartidly with all they have. He will have the hearts of our generation.
Anyways, there are times that God "hems us in behind and before" and places thorns around our lives. The sinful pleasures that we were partaking of that brought us satisfaction are ripped away and there is nothing left. We thought life would stay that way forever, but it never does. We thought we'd be happy forever. When we give our hearts to other loves, we end up hurt, bitter, bruised, and broken. Hosea 2:8-13 speaks of how she didn't realize that the good things in her life (grain, new wine, wool, linen, etc) came from her husband. She thought she could live as a prostitute and still have those things. She wanted both worlds - the good things of a christian life, yet the pleasures of sin. When she gave into sin, she realized that she no longer had those things her husband provided. Instead, she was left with nothing. This is the perfect time when God steps into our lives. He creates the perfect timing that our eyes are opened to our sin and we realize that what we are partaking in is not as good as we thought - it can't satisfy us. So, we turn back to God - for we once loved Him in a way that was sincere. And there God is - with His arms open wide, ready to embrace and heal our wounded hearts. He was working in our lives the entire time, even when we were living like a prostitute. He was the one that caused trouble in our lives, not because He was mad, but because He is a lover - a jealous lover that wants our hearts. It is worth it to Him for us to go through trouble if it means He gets our hearts in the end. Can you see his love in your own life? May we view times of hardship differently - Song of Sol says that His banner over our life is love. Everything He allows in our live is because of love - it's His motive for allowing trouble and good into our lives. He wants our hearts in the end and someitmes He will cause divine trouble in our lives for that to occur. So if you've had a lot of trouble, you must be really loved!!!
I love this part. She is left with nothing. She has figured out that her sinful pleasures don't last forever and she is left hurt, broken, and bruised. Chpt 2:14 God speaks and says, "Therefore I am now going to allure her; i will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her." Awe yes...the desert times. In the desert there are no springs to drink from. There are no pleasures. Everything has been stripped from her life. It is during this time that God breaks in and speaks to her. He doesn't speak angrily such as, "Why the heck did you do that? You're a horrible...blah blah blah." Instead, He speaks to her tenderly. AWE!! I LOVE THIS ABOUT GOD! When someone returns to Him, He binds up there wounds. He speaks tenderness into their heart and heals them again with His love. This is how He brings someone back to Him, through lovingkindness. He then goes on and says, "There (in the desert) I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope." The VAlley of Achor literally means the valley of trouble. So God is saying over her that the time she just went through of trouble will end up being her hope. What does that mean? Her eyes have opened to what sin is and what it does in her life. She has tasted other streams and fountains and she knows what that leads her to - a broken and bruised heart. The very trouble that God allowed has brought her hope. She has an understanding of life now that she did not have before and she says yes to God again. God says after that, "There she will sing as in the days of her youth..." A heart that sings of His love. God has won her heart again. She will sing as she used to! In v. 16 it states, "In that day, declares the lord, you will call me 'husband,' you will no longer call me 'master.' I will remove the names of other gods from her lips..." She once called Him 'master.' God wants to bring us to a place where our view of God is as a lover, not as someone who is bringing rules into our lives that we have to follow. She saw Him as a master, not as a lover. Now that she has tasted other loves, she knows that His love for her is better. She now calls him husband. God wants our view of Him to be as the one who loves us, not as the one who disciplines us out of anger. He is a God of tenerdness and affection.
V. 19 says, "I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge the Lord." He was saying over her that His love she experienced is not just for a season - His promise for her of this kind of love was forever. She had experienced what she thought would be pleasure that lasted forever, but now she has found true pleasure in God's love for her, and it will never end. She had not been faithful, yet His promise to her was that He would faithfully love her forever. His compassion towards her would never end. He also promises at the end that she will acknowledge the Lord. In other words, she would know Him, she would have an undersatnding of His love and she would acknowledge it. It would no longer be just Him loving her, they would be in this thing together - she would love Him also.
Chapter 6:1 "Come let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds...he will revive us."
No matter what the Lord has allowed to happen in our lives, there is a promise of restoration and healing. He doesn't want a part of us, He will allow divine things to occur in our lives that will shake us and transform us until we have an undersanding of God's heart of love for us. Desert times can be the best thing for us! Do you feel like you have been torn to pieces? It's time to return to the one who loves you - He has been a part of every season of our lives - the difficulties, the times we have not acknowledge Him, every part!