This week we focus on the Lenten theme of repentance.
Words of Reflection
The season of Lent provides us a special opportunity to understand the heart of God for his wandering children in a richer and deeper way. Spending an intentional 40 days thinking about the cross of Christ and the depth of his sacrifice reminds us just how loved we are, because we see what lengths God went to in order to draw us back to himself.
It’s a common misconception to think that this picture of God’s heart, with all of its tenderness and longing for a wayward people, is a uniquely New Testament image. It is not. It is the same heart that we find yearning for the return of his people Israel, who choose their own path in hopeless pursuit of idols despite all God has done for them.
Nowhere is this more powerfully demonstrated than in the story of the prophet Hosea. Called by God to speak out against the nation’s idolatry, Hosea is also called to live out a very striking image of God’s love and Israel’s unfaithfulness in his marriage to a woman named Gomer. The persistent, loving, and faithful attempts by Hosea to bring Gomer out of her sin and bring her home provide a living parable of our relationship with God. The same words God cries out in Hosea 11 about Israel, he also cries out regarding us: “How can I give you up? How can I let you go?” These are words of absolute love and endless compassion. In them we find the invitation to cease our wanderings and return to the One who loves us with a perfect love.
Repentance is our response to God’s call to come home. It’s not about punishment and it’s not about shame. It’s about God’s heart calling out to us, and our heart responding in faith, trust, and supplication. No matter how often we stray, God stands ready to forgive. His love is constant and eternally faithful.
He wants nothing more than for us to return. He invites us to come home.
Scripture for Meditation:
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
—Joel 2:12-14 (NRSV)
Song: Hosea (Come Back to Me)
Come back to me with all your heart.
Don't let fear keep us apart.
Trees do bend, 'though straight and tall;
so must we to others' call.Long have I waited for your coming home to me
and living deeply our new life.The wilderness will lead you
to your heart where I will speak.
Integrity and justice,
With tenderness, you shall know.Long have I waited for your coming home to me
and living deeply our new life.You shall sleep secure with peace;
faithfulness will be your joy.Long have I waited for your coming home to me
and living deeply our new life.
Gregory Norbet
Today we give you two different options for this song. The first, by Kairy Marquez & Jonatan Narváez, is a somewhat upbeat, pop/folk rendition. The second is a more reflective version by John Michael Talbot.
Questions for Contemplation:
Spend some time considering God’s heart for you reflected in the words, “How can I give you up? How can I let you go?” Are you able to hear the depth of his love behind those words, love demonstrated supremely in the death and resurrection of Jesus? If not, what barriers might be preventing you from fully accepting it?
What does it mean for you to “return home” to God? How has he shown patience to you in your wanderings, and how has his grace been demonstrated to you when you return? Spend some time in grateful prayer for the ways he has called you home to himself.
In today’s song we hear the lyrics, “The wilderness will lead you to your heart where I will speak.” How has God spoken to you in your wilderness seasons? If you’re in a wilderness season right now, how might you find a posture of listening for his voice?