Welcome to Week Nine of our Prayer Journey!
As I was praying through what topics to touch on for each week in preparation, I had an interesting evening.
It was pretty typical, actually. Until God stepped in.
It had been a normally busy day of school for Ace, making sure everyone is fed and getting what they need, and refereeing wrestling matches between my two boys.
We just got a kids’ bible for our family for Christmas, and so I had spent some time with JJ reading through the story of the day while Ace was at school.
Then, during nap time I read through an article about living a Christian life that had come through my email.
Per usual, after dinner, I turned on a podcast of a sermon series I’ve been listening to lately while washing the dishes.
And then, the boys were in bed and I could take some time to do my Bible reading.
I read through some chapters and was ready to move on to the next thing for my night when I felt God getting my attention.
Taking in all this Biblical truth and listening to others talk about the Christian walk is great.
But I had just treated my alone time with God reading in the Word the same as I treated reading an article or listening to a podcast.
I was about to walk away without really having had any kind of conversation with God about what I was reading!
I had thought through my own thoughts on the passage, but there was very little communication between me and God about what He had for me through what I was reading.
When we have so much information coming at us, it’s easy to just take it in, absorb it, and not necessarily have conversation with God about it.
So I want to challenge us this week to go into our Bible reading time expecting a conversation with God.
Let’s not let our Bible reading become a time of taking information in and moving on. Or only mulling over what our own thoughts are on it and not taking time to invite God into what we’re reading.
We need to invite God into our Bible reading.
This seems obvious, and like it should be automatic.
But, we can read information about someone without ever really getting to know them or having conversation to deepen our relationship with them.
Look at the way we feel connected to so many people through social media. Yet, how many of those people do we really have conversation and a growing relationship with?
We can easily read their posts that let us know their opinions on things, and look through their pictures to see what they value and how they live their lives, and start to feel like we know them and therefore have an active relationship with them.
But, if we never actually take time to have conversations with them, is our relationship with them truly growing?
Not really.
We just end up knowing facts about them.
We have to be careful not to treat our time reading God’s Word the same way.
We can too easily fall into feeling like our relationship with God is growing and deepening just because we read about Him or read what He said.
But, there has to be relational communication.
There has to be active prayer in our Bible reading.
This week I want us to take time each day to read through the book of Hosea.
Hosea was a prophet who God chose to use his life as a visual example to the Israelites of how He has loved them and how wretchedly they’ve treated Him in return.
It’s a heart wrenching and beautiful read where we get a glimpse of God’s heart towards His people and how we affect Him.
Week Nine Challenge: Take time each day to read through the book of Hosea this week. The entire book is 14 chapters, so if you split this reading up through your week, it will be 2 chapters a day. For each chapter, I have written specific questions to think about and take to prayer, talking to God about how this relates to your own life and listening to God to help you reflect on what you’re reading.
A lot of the questions involve remembering how God has been in your past, where He is today, and how you view walking with Him in the future.
There is something so intimate about reading the Word and taking time to pray and talk with God about what He is showing you right then and there.
Father, as we go through the book of Hosea this week, will You open our hearts and eyes to Your own heart? Meet with us each day as we take time to be intentional about inviting You into our Bible reading, truly growing and deepening our relationships with You.
From one of His children to another,
Christi
Let’s invite God into our Bible reading this week!
Chapter 1:
- God, am I willing to be used by You as an example to others like You chose to use Hosea? How have You made me an example to those around me, coworkers, my family, my kids? Do I consider my own life so much belonging to You that whatever You ask, even if it’s for others’ sake, I will follow?
- (Hosea 1:7) God keeps His promises to David (see 2 Samuel 7, remembering that David was of the tribe of Judah). Do I believe and hold onto Your promises even when things do not look or feel like You are upholding them?
- (Hosea 1:10-11) God reminded the people of Israel who they were without Him, so that they could grasp their desperate need for Him. Think of a time where you have decided to go a direction other than God’s way. How did those times show you how much you truly need Him? How did those times remind you that you desperately want to be His child?
Chapter 2: Compare verse 5 with verse 8. Where are you tempted to look for your own provision to come from instead of keeping your eyes fixed on God as your Provider?
Chapter 3: (Hosea 3:3) What do you tend to run after, or where do you spend your attention, instead of God lately? Reflect on how God has never left you even in times when you’ve taken your eyes off of Him.
Chapter 4: The accusations that the Lord calls the Israelites out on are heavy and harsh. But, also true. God, where do I see some of the accusations in this chapter true of myself at points in my own life?
Chapter 5: (Hosea 5:4) Are there deeds in your own life that do not permit you to fully and completely, whole-heartedly return to your God?
- (Hosea 5:15) How does this verse bring purpose into times in your own life where you have had to live in distress because of sin?
Chapter 6: (Hosea 6:1) Talk with God about the meaning of this verse. Where have you seen this occur in your own life? In the life of others around you?
Chapter 7: Background: Ephraim was one of the tribes of Israel, originally named after Joseph’s second son who he had while in Egypt (Genesis 41:52). They had become a leading tribe in Israel with the capital, Samaria, being in their territory. They had also become absorbed by idol worshipping and called out for going astray from God’s commands.
- (Hosea 7:1) How does God’s healing reveal iniquity in our own lives?
- (Hosea 7:15) Has God provided for you and strengthened you in ways that you’ve chosen to use for your own selfish desires instead of for His kingdom as He intended? How can you tell the difference between when you are using what God’s given to you, whether that be provision or talents, for His glory versus when you use it for your own glory?
Chapter 8: (Hosea 8:11) How have you seen this similarly happen in the lives of those around you? In your own life? In what ways have you “set yourself up”, or built your own altars, for sin in your life?
Chapter 9: (Hosea 9:10) How do we become detestable like the things we love when we take our adoration off of God where it belongs and onto things that do not deserve our affectionate attention?
Chapter 10: (Hosea 10:13) In what areas in your life are you most tempted to trust in your own way and depend on your own strength while God should be the source of your guidance and strength?
Chapter 11: (Hosea 11:3) Take time thinking through what this verse looks like in your own life.
- (Hosea 11:9) How do God’s actions in this chapter prove this verse to be true of His Character? That He is God so far above us, and not a man like us.
Chapter 12 and 13: (Hosea 12:8-9; 13:5-6) Ephraim forgot where they had come from. They lost all sight of humility and convinced themselves that how far they had come was their own doing. When in fact, God is who brought them up to where they were. Are there areas in your life where you act like Ephraim? Where God has blessed you and come through for you in the past, and you’ve lost sight of Who brought you to where you are today? Let Hosea 13:6 never be said of our own hearts.
Chapter 14: How good a God we serve and follow that even after we have strayed away and messed up, we can return to Him the way Hosea pleads for Israel to do in this chapter. Do you truly believe this? How have you personally felt the goodness and grace of Hosea 14:7, dwelling beneath the shadow of the God who unconditionally loves you?