Read Hosea Chapter 7
I Want To Heal You.
HEALING: It is God’s desire to heal us and restore us back into a relationship with himself. In verse 1, God declares that “Whenever I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim (one of the tribes of Israel) would be uncovered.”
I find this remarkable. Before healing can occur, our sins must be uncovered, exposed, and dealt with. Do you want healing with the Lord? It requires being honest with yourself. It will require you admitting your weaknesses versus denying them, hiding them, or thinking you got everything under control.
YOU CANT FOOL GOD: You may fool some people but nothing is hidden from God. He sees and knows everything about us. In verse 2, God says, “The people have forgotten that I remember all their wickedness.”
What’s even more remarkable, is that even though God is aware of our sins, he still loves us, he still wants to heal us and restore us with himself.
ADMIT / CONFESS: But we have to take the first step and admit and confess our sins – even surrender our sins to the Lord calling upon him to EMPOWER us to be overcomers, to be victorious in Jesus.
ISOLATE YOURSELF: One of the things Ephraim had to do was isolate themselves from those that kept them in sin. It says in verse 8 that “Ephraim mixes himself with the other nations….” In other words, Ephraim has gravitated toward those who are not living for the Lord. We, like Ephraim, have to isolate ourselves from those who are not taking us to the Lord, but instead are influencing us away from the Lord.
HARDSHIPS: Until we are ready to surrender our lives to the Lord, we will continue to face hardships and be disciplined by the Lord. He wants to heal us and restore us. Is that what you want?
