Living Well

Hosea 14:9 "If you want to live well,
make sure you understand all of this.
If you know what's good for you,
you'll learn this inside and out.
God's paths get you where you want to go.
Right-living people walk them easily;
wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling."

The Book of Hosea is a charge against Israel for the way it continued to turn its back on God. They would follow every movement in other directions and forsake God at every turn. They would want what they once had, want more than God would provide or would allow and they would go after another God that satisfied their desires.

Fortunately, the book ends with a promise after a harsh judgment, that returning to God will make things better for them. It's a good reminder that right living has a lot of characteristics and it doesn't simply mean being good.

Right living has at its heart love for God and love for others. It is a life of looking out for others in justice and mercy. It is living the very life Jesus taught how to live and that he lived himself. Right living is not only believing in God, but committing to God and God's ways, even if it means sacrificing the desires of the self, of the flesh.

It's very easy to fall away from God. We do it all the time. But a life that is not 100% committed to God will never fully receive the blessing God is preparing for it and will continue to slip further from God. We are either growing toward's God or growing away from Him. There is no standing still in this relationship. In other words, if we think we are good with God, but ignore our relationship, we are on a very slippery slope.

Hosea 12:6 "What are you waiting for? Return to your God!
Commit yourself in love, in justice!
Wait for your God,
and don't give up on him—ever!"

What's the secret to living well? Trusting in God's grace, not only to forgive, but to help us live. Living well is living by the grace of God every day. It's what God wants for us, not from us. And He's there to help.

Peace ><>
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