The Clarion Call

Daily Reading: Hosea 14

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.  Your sins have been your downfall!  Take words with you and return to the Lord.  Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously.” (Hosea 14.1-2, NIV)

Devotional Thought: Hosea ends with a clarion call: “Return to the Lord!”  Throughout this book, God has been calling Israel to leave their sins and return to him.  His message is as much needed today as it was then. 

What is it that ruins a nation, a people, a family or a life?  It is sin!  Disease may destroy the body… War may waste the countryside… Hardship may hinder our progress…  But sin severs the soul from God, and without God there is no hope. 

We have all known people whose lives have been touched by disease, but who somehow manage to live above the despair.  Whether it is blindness, cancer, trauma, or handicap, they were able to maintain hope amid it. Those people amaze us, don’t they?  But we’ve also known people who allow sin to rule their lives, becoming slaves to passions and fears, anger and bitterness, rebellion and hatred.  The condition of those people frightens us, for we don’t want to become like that.

Sin has been a universal problem since the beginning days of human history.  God told Cain in the Garden of Eden: “Sin is crouching at your door.  It desires to have you, but you must master it.”  Instead of running to God with words of contrition, Cain ran from God when he was warned about sin.  Cain did not master sin, and he ended up killing his brother and ruining his family, and then spent the rest of his life running.

Do you hear the clarion call?  "Return to the Lord!"

Prayer: Lord, the words of my prayer are those taught by Hosea long ago: Forgive all my sins and receive me graciously.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 86.1-10

"1 Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

2 Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.

3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.

4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.

7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me.

8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.

9 All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.

10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God."