Come Back

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. Hosea 2:19-20, NIV

When someone is walking away from God, how do you handle it?

God asks Hosea to love unfaithful Gomer, and God uses their relationship as an example of how God deals with us when our own hearts wander (Hosea 2:2-14, NIV). We can use this Scripture as a model for how we should deal with someone who has turned away from God.

• Explain the truth, the standard. “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her.”
• Don’t bankroll the person’s sin. “Otherwise I will strip her naked. . . . I will make her like a desert . . . and slay her with thirst.”
• Pray a hedge of protection about her so that anytime she sins, it will be as if she were running into thorn bushes with bare skin—painful! “Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.”
• Pray she fails at sin. “She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.”
• Allow her to pay the consequences for her poor choices. “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness.”
• Don’t cover for her lifestyle, decisions, or choices. “So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers.”
• Don’t keep going along with her ideas and plans as if nothing has happened. “I will stop all her celebrations.”
• Take the high road to protect your character, and provide an opportunity to repent. “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.”