Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you for being a part of this day of prayer for our prodigals and for revival.
One of the themes that runs through the book of Hosea is that God never gives up on His people. Despite Israel’s sin, failure, unbelief, idolatry, and insistent rejection of God’s goodness, He always continued to pursue them with grace.
In Hosea, God was faithful even when the people of Israel were unfaithful. There were definite consequences to their sin. Sin always brings consequences! But what we learn from Hosea is that regardless of how far we may run from God and His love, He will never give up on us. Regardless of our past, He still wants us to turn to Him and seek Him.
In the midst of their failure and departure, God pursued them. And in Hosea 10:12, He says:
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap steadfast love;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is the time to seek the LORD,
That He may come and rain righteousness upon you.
Sowing and reaping is a basic farming principle that we can all understand. We cannot plant lettuce seed and hope to harvest pumpkins. Similarly, we cannot expect to reap the fruit of righteousness—love—without sowing righteousness.
And before sowing, the fallow ground has to be broken up. Fallow ground is ground that has not been tilled and is lying dormant and unused.
Maybe there are areas of our lives that we have shut off from God, like sinfulness, an unhealthy focus, an unforgiving spirit, bitter feelings, or impure thoughts. If this is the case, we need to break up our fallow ground. We need to seek God with all our hearts.
This is a call to transparency and openness before God. When we are willing to seek the Lord, and let Him work, His sweet rain will produce the fruits of righteousness and love. May it be so in all our lives.
Love in Christ,
Bryan and Rachel