As Imperfect Wives we all need encouragement to stay steady. To hang on when things in our marriages just don’t make sense.
As we continue to walk the theme of living intentionally free lives in Christ, it may be time to be reminded of simple obedience. I know I need the reminder!
Simple but intentional obedience.
Our obedience is what God desires from us.
In my personal quiet time with the Lord, I have been studying the book of Hosea. As I am reading it, I am struck by several things. One overall thing I have been amazed by is Hosea’s obedience to the Lord, even when asked to do some strange things.
Hosea and his marriage is a picture of the Lord’s relationship with Israel as played out in the life of the prophet himself.
If you know the story of Hosea, it is quite disconcerting.
Hosea is told to take a prostitute as his wife and take the children of unfaithfulness. He is to love her as the Lord loves His people Israel even though they stray from Him and “prostitute” themselves out to foreign gods and sin.
Can you imagine being used by God to portray this?
The Lord then declares judgment upon Israel through Hosea. But then God does something else in Hosea 3:1,
The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (NIV)
After taking Gomer (the prostitute) to be his wife and having several children with her (although they are not his children), having her leave him over and over again for other men, hearing and speaking the judgment of the Lord against his people, Hosea is asked to show love to his wife again.
Wow, this is mind-blowing. Mind-blowing because Hosea obeyed God. Mind-blowing because God loves us so much that His love for His people is relentless!
Hopefully your situation in your marriage is not at all like Hosea’s. Nonetheless, God is calling you to obey Him.
He is calling me to obey and you to obey if you proclaim yourself a Christ-follower.
We get hurt. We don’t get our way. We become a little self-focused. We sin against our husbands. Our husbands sin against us. Yet, all in all we have the choice to choose obedience to God’s way. We must be intentional or we will miss our opportunities for obedience as we wallow in hurt feelings, self-justification, bitterness, or anger.
I know that Hosea’s choice could not have been easy, but there is something that made the decision a “no-brainer”.
Trust in The Holy One of Israel. Have absolute faith that God is God and that He knows what we need to do.
Trust like this is how we hold on as wives during the tough times. Trust and obedience. They go hand and hand together.
Trust and obey for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to Trust and Obey.
♥ Kim
Beautiful Kim! I pray that I would be that obedient, it would be so very hard. Cheating to me would be one of the hardest things to forgive, even if I could forgive, forgetting is what would be harder.
Hosea was so very strong!!