He Desires Your Love...

Friday's Thought:

I've been reading Hosea chapter 6 and two things have really stood out to me.

Firstly, we are to press on to know the Lord.

"Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD"

Secondly, it is important to Him that we love and get to know Him.

It doesn't matter how many mission trips we've been on, how much money we've tithed or how many people we've brought to church, if we do not love Him, it means nothing. If we do not desire to know the Lord, it means nothing.

"For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." 
  
Brother Yun, a missionary pastor in China, once said:

"It doesn't matter if people reject you and say you are worthless. All that matters is that Jesus loves you, and He wants to be your best friend."

Jesus says:

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

These things I command you, that you love one another."

The Great I AM desires that He be your best friend, nothing else will do.

               Hosea Chapter 6

Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy. In the house of Israel  I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore the fortunes of my people.