{"id":21646,"date":"2014-09-05T00:20:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T04:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=21646"},"modified":"2014-09-04T14:00:18","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T18:00:18","slug":"hosea-gomer-story-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/05\/hosea-gomer-story-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosea and Gomer-A Story of Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"encouragementbloggraphicromans15\"<\/a>Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hosea 3:1<\/p>\n

We all have battles. \u00a0Sometimes we may want to give up. \u00a0Fear becomes too much. \u00a0His Word is where I go to get through. \u00a0There you find hope in the ones who have gone before us and we see where God was faithful over and over again. The story of Hosea and Gomer is a portrait of God\u2019s faithfulness toward His people who go astray.<\/p>\n

Hosea had a lot of knowledge that he probably wished he didn\u2019t have. \u00a0See his wife, Gomer, had been unfaithful (to say the least). \u00a0Actually, she had sold herself into bondage and Hosea had to buy her out at a huge price.<\/p>\n

So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.<\/p>\n

Verse 2<\/p>\n

Gomer did not love herself enough to believe that anyone else could love her. She didn\u2019t think she was good enough to have a husband, especially one who loved her so much. \u00a0She eventually left him, believing a lie from the enemy that she wasn\u2019t loved. \u00a0Hosea couldn\u2019t have been really happy about the fact that she didn\u2019t accept his love and trust.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you feel like you are looking at the face of God while you read this story? Don\u2019t you hear Him saying to His people that no matter where they have been or how far they\u2019ve gone away from Him, that He desperately wants them to return to Him? \u00a0 Just like Hosea didn\u2019t leave his wife in bondage, God never leaves us alone for too long in our desperate situation.<\/p>\n

At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. \u00a0I will show love to those I called \u2018not loved\u2019. \u00a0And to those I called \u2018not my people\u2019, I will say, \u201cNow you are my people, and they will reply, \u201cYou are our God!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosea 2:23<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t we serve an amazing<\/em><\/strong> God? \u00a0There is no one in the world like Him<\/strong>. No one gives chance after chance. \u00a0No one will work so unceasingly hard to show us affection after affection. \u00a0God is God and I am not\u2026His very name calls for us to bow down and worship Him for always loving us. \u00a0Even in our sinful nature, He understands and has mercy on us. \u00a0Patience and grace and unfailing love are ours and it\u2019s unconditional. \u00a0We can\u2019t do anything to make Him love us any more or any less. \u00a0And He uses our own shortcomings to quiet our souls. \u00a0He uses any means to take our worst decisions and turn them around for His glory and our good.<\/p>\n

This I know for sure—there will be battles today. \u00a0Anxiety may creep in and we may have some tough times ahead. \u00a0BUT we will NOT be left in that place for long. God never leaves us even through our anger and fear, and repentance. \u00a0And when we hit our bottom, He gives us His hand that reaches us wherever we are and pulls us out. \u00a0He places our feet on a firm foundation. \u00a0He is faithful and true FOREVER and He will lead us through mountains and valleys and He will always take hold of our hand…Hosea\u2019s and Gomer\u2019s, mine and yours!<\/p>\n

\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us pray: Dear Lord, You are a loving God. You know us through and through, and You have an amazing plan for each one of us. \u00a0Thank You for Your grace and mercy that You so freely give. \u00a0And when we are going through the valley, You never let go of our hand. \u00a0And just like Hosea and Gomer, You give us chance after chance! \u00a0You, too, bought us with a huge price—the death of Your Son Jesus. \u00a0We will forever live with You because of Your sacrifice. \u00a0Help us Lord, to have the same love for each other. \u00a0And that we will go to any lengths to share the good news of You with all who will listen. \u00a0And if a friend has gone astray, we will never give up on them. \u00a0We love You and we praise You. \u00a0In Jesus’ name, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.” Hosea 3:1 We all have battles. \u00a0Sometimes we may want to give […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[6998,1287,425,7236,7239,7238,7234,589,7240],"class_list":["post-21646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-encouragement-blog","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-he-never-leaves-us","tag-hosea-223","tag-hosea-31-2","tag-hosea-and-gomer","tag-kim-spring","tag-purchased-at-a-great-price","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5D8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21646"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21653,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21646\/revisions\/21653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}