Bought with a Price
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. - I Corinthians 6:19-20
Read these words and think to yourselves if you are living out your own life or what God has planned for you. To see the "you are not your own" part lived out, come with me to the book of Hosea!
Poor Hosea. That is my first thought when reading about this man. But should I really be saying that? Hosea was, after all, living out his life in radical obedience to God, reaping lots of rewards in heaven for his obedience. Hmmm....do you think he knew the passage of Matthew 6:19-21?
Hosea was told by God to take a "wife of harlotry" in Gomer (Ho 1:2). Why? So his marriage and children could be a "picture" of Israel and Judah's unfaithfulness to God. I am totally humbled by Hosea's obedience to God.(Ho 1:3). Do you think Hosea's goal in life was to marry a prostitute who would humiliate him? Scripture doesn't always depict the human element of its characters in much detail and I'm learning to try to put myself in their places more to get the full impact of what is going on. I would bet that although obedient, being an emotional human being, Hosea was torn up inside when he heard God's plan for him.
The bottom line is this. Being in God's will, is the only place we should want to be, even if we don't always understand it. I like to think of God's view of our lives as looking down from an airplane at the earth 20,000 feet below. He can see everything - much more than I can see from the ground! Trust and obey for there's no other way. Sorry, I couldn't resist! That old hymn just popped into my mind.
Seriously, the kind of radical obedience we see in Hosea requires a whole lot of trust and and a whole lot of self sacrifice. Are you up for the challenge?
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.