Cry out for healing

 

From: Bibleinoneyear.org.

Hosea 6:1-7:16

God wants to bring healing to our lives.  The people knew that if they truly returned to God, he would heal them (6:1).  ‘Unless we receive a miracle, all healing is a process that takes time, especially emotional healing.  Healing does not come easily and can be quite painful.  Sometimes we have wounds that are still infected, and before we can be thoroughly healed, those wounds must be opened and the infection removed.  Only God knows how to do this properly.  As you seek God for the healing from your hurts, there are two main things you can do to facilitate the process: spend time with God in His Word and wait in His presence.  I guarantee you will find healing there!’ writes Joyce Meyer.

If we want God’s healing, we need to cry out to him from our hearts.  God’s complaint against his people in this passage is that, ‘Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer, they whoop it up in bed with their whores’ (7:14, MSG). 

The first three verses of chapter 6 appear to describe the painful process by which the Lord restores us to himself when we slip away from him.  However, there is no acknowledgment of sin or deep repentance. 

It may be Hosea putting the people’s shallow confession into words.  ‘Your declarations of love last no longer than morning mist and predawn dew’ (6:4, MSG).

What is clear is that God is interested in the heart, not superficial action: ‘For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings’ (v.6).  As The Messagetranslation puts it, ‘I’m after love that lasts, not more religion.  I want you to know God.’  He is concerned about a relationship with him that comes from the heart. 

His complaint is that ‘none of them calls on me’ (7:7).  There is an arrogance, an independent spirit in humankind that refuses to ‘return to the Lord … or search for him’ (v.10).  He says, ‘they have strayed from me! … They have rebelled against me!  I long to redeem them … but they turn away from me’ (vv.13–14).  He longs for them to cry out to him from their hearts’, but they do not turn to the Most High (vv.14,16).