Cultivating a life of obedience

I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’ “But you have cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins. You have eaten the fruit of lies—trusting in your military might, believing that great armies could make your nation safe. Hosea 10:12-13 God had called the Israelites to be His people that will represent Him to the surrounding nations. He will bless them so that they could be a blessing to others. “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others” (Genesis 12:2). But the problem was, as stated from the text by Hosea, was that they became indifferent to listening and obeying God. They became over familiar to God’s Word that they started to take it for granted. This was why God was calling them “plow up the hard ground of [their] hearts.” They were called upon to return to Him and seek Him. When the earth was dry and brittle, the farmer would plow to loosen the soil so it would be receptive to the seeds and the rains that would give life to the crop. But they have instead neglected God’s working upon their lives and they “have cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins.” Unless they break up what prevents them from hearing God and His word, they will remain buying into false security which was trusting and depending on their own abilities instead of trusting God. They turned away from trusting God; “...for they have deserted the Lord to worship other gods” (Hosea 4:10). God wants us to experience life and not miss out in growing in righteousness that has been sown in our hearts because of our relationship with Christ. This is why we need to cultivate our hearts and minds by choosing to be receptive in His word. We are called upon to not compromise our faith by settling for substitutes. God wants to pour in us seeds of righteousness so we could “harvest a crop of love.” In this way, we can live out our purpose of becoming a blessing to others. We can start to share the joy God gives us as we grow in our relationship with Him. We can be a source of encouragement for others as they too seek out God’s will for their lives. God can also use us to model faith and obedience to God for our children. Let us not hardened our hearts that we will start to ignore what God is telling us to do from His word. As soon as we noticed that we are becoming unresponsive to God, we should immediately cultivate our hearts by weeding out those that prevent us from trusting God.

Blessings,

Noel De Guzman

www.my-wbc.com