Session 4

Is God Bugging You?

From Hosea: A 12-Day Devotional

We would be institutionalized if we were found praying to a stick after murdering our kids to calm the angry tree god in the back yard. But child sacrifice was a normal religious ritual for those who worshipped pagan gods in Hosea’s time.

While most people today don’t bow to bronze cows or fornicate with shrine prostitutes, we aren’t any less deceived. Instead of dealing with the sin in our lives, we’ll try to make ourselves spiritually well by giving more of our time, talent and money to the church. We keep quiet and do good things thinking our consciences will quit bugging us. But in reality, we will never find lasting peace.

Like Israel, we tell ourselves that if we forget God, He will forget us. Israel abandoned God to pursue a lifestyle contrary to His plan for them. But how could they hide from someone who knows and sees everything under the sun (Hosea 5:3)?

God loves us too much to let us lose ourselves to sin. He is patient with us and jealous for us, progressively going to greater and greater lengths to bring us back to Him. In Hosea 5:12, God describes Himself like a moth. He tries distracting us from our sin in a harmless way to get us thinking of Him once again. But if we resist the moth’s annoying flapping, God promises to come closer and destroy those things competing for our hearts (Hosea 5:12).

God knows us completely and still loves us. He knew even our deepest, darkest sins and still sent Jesus to die for us!  

Reflect:

• Like Israel, we sometimes commit spiritual adultery against God. Have you ever let a person or pursuit trump God as first in your life? What happened?
• Is there any persistent or ongoing sin in your life right now?
• Is God trying to get your attention? Who or what is the moth in your life?