In Other Words....

Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. Hosea 2:14

When I saw the verse Heather choose for this week's quote, my heart soared! It is one of my favorites! I wrote about this verse in a talk I gave called, "Don't Waste Your Life!". Here is an excerpt from it:

Do you know how the Lord feels about YOU? You are so precious to God. He loves you so much. You see, He loves the world, and you are included in that, but He loves YOU. God woos us, He whispers to us, He never gives up on our love. He desires YOU. He wants a deep relationship with YOU. He wants YOU to be completely abandoned to HIM, head over heals crazy about Him! We are His beloved and He is the lover of our souls.

You may have never experienced this love relationship with the Lord. This may all sound very new, and a little strange to you. You have never thought God would want an intimate relationship with GOD. Or, maybe you feel unworthy of His love. You feel that what you have done, or something that has been done to you has disqualified you from His love. Maybe you have felt this love once, but have left it grow cold over time. You have forgotten your "first love." Or, maybe your heart is soaring in agreement right now because you ARE experiencing this intimacy with God.

Now matter where you are, God is calling you to Him. He meets each one of us exactly where we are, and it doesn’t matter if this is all new to us, or we are experiencing His intimacy, God wants each one of us to go deeper in Him today. He has called you by name and placed this desire in your heart to know Him more.

He wants us to surrender to His love and be completely abandoned, wild for Him. He wants to allure us. Isn’t that a romantic word, “allure?” And, yet that is the exact word the Bible uses!

In Hosea, God says, “Therefore, I am going to allure her; I will
lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.”

Why does God lead us into the desert BEFORE speaking to us?

Have you ever been to Phoenix? The desert, or the wilderness is out beyond the city. We stayed at a resort in the desert. It was beautiful. It had trails you could walk through in the desert. It was very quiet, almost lonely. This resort sat on incredible hills, and had a beautiful view of the city, especially at night. Looking out, you could see the city lights of Phoenix, but everything else was so still, so quiet, so dark. It was so amazing~ the contrast of the loneliness of the desert and the business of the city.

God wants to take us away from the city lights, away from the distractions, where it is still and quiet and we can hear His voice. He wants to make sure we are listening. God needs to get us alone, away from the cell phones and the emails and all of our commitments; away from the busyness of life. Then, He can speak and be heard.

And, sometimes it is only in the wilderness, the dry, hard times of life, when we are ready to listen.

For more thoughts on this week's quote, please visit Heather at http://atitus2woman.blogspot.com/