9th Nov

2 Kings 22     Joel 1     Hebrews 4     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Hebrews 4

Rest in the Lord and trust His power

It’s all very well to read God’s word and attend church but if you lack faith in God’s power your life can be very frustrating !

 We had been travelling for 3 hours heading towards a campsite on the West coast of Italy. I had put the directions into our ‘trusty ‘ satnav and were confident we would be camped within the half hour. Three hours later and an extra 100 miles we were no closer. Frustration, doubt and anger followed. At this point my wife said something quite inspirational! ‘Let’s pray to God for directions’. We did. Within minutes we had found the road which led to our campsite. Why had we waited so long to do something which should come so naturally?

When we trust in our own efforts we can get lost ’big time’. Rest in the Lord at every opportunity and trust Him to lead your life.

In Romania, Christians address each other with the word ‘Pace’ which means Peace. How wonderful! It reminds us we can have peace here on earth as well as eternal life in heaven.

Lastly in verse 16 we are encouraged to be bold and reverent when we approach God in Prayer. God knows who we are, what we want and need and will answer our prayers accordingly.

Prayer

Dear Lord, when I need to make decisions today help me to put you first and trust in your guidance. 

Amen

(member of a homegroup)

8th Nov

2 Kings 21     Hosea 14     Hebrews 3     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Hosea 14

Behold a noontime of light!

As we reach the conclusion of Hosea, we read here that the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance, and still suggests some hope of mercy. To fully appreciate God's mercy, we must consider the preceding chapters, where Hosea had already testified that there would be no remedy any more, because they had extremely provoked God.

Is this a contradiction? No. The people could return to God by asking Him to forgive their sins.

Destruction was not God’s last word to his covenant people. Although judgment must come, God’s healing, restoring grace is always more powerful than human sin.

Although we cannot demand forgiveness, we can be confident that we have received it because God is gracious and loving and wants to restore us to himself, just as he wanted to restore Israel.  When our will is weak, when our thinking is confused, when we're loaded with guilt or friends desert us, we must remember that God cares for us continually. God's love knows no bounds. His love and forgiveness will cleanse us "...like a refreshing dew from heaven..." (v5).

I will leave the last word on Hosea 14 to Charles Spurgeon:

“This is a wonderful chapter to be at the end of such a book. I had never expected from such a prickly shrub to gather so fair a flower, so sweet a fruit; but so it is: where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. No chapter in the Bible can be more rich in mercy than this last of Hosea; and yet no chapter in the Bible might, in the natural order of things, have been more terrible in judgment. Where we looked for the blackness of darkness, behold a noontime of light!” (Charles Spurgeon)

(member of a homegroup)