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Bringing Us to Him: How Does God Do It?

“Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.” – Hosea 6:1

Christians, we should tremble more. But I know why we don’t. And so do you.

If we could only see the depths of our wickedness. How dirty we are. How unlovable. How unworthy. Constantly overflowing with our own sinful desires. Even in the midst of so great a salvation, we take our relationship to God for granted…

As if God owes us his love. As if he owes us the power of prayer. As if he owes us forgiveness. As if he owes us even common grace – in the sunlight of a autumn afternoon, or the starlight of a cool summer night. God owes us nothing – besides a just judgment and condemnation of our sin and rebellion.

It makes me wonder…how does God do it? How can he look past my constant rejection of Him, and my inbred idolatrous nature? How does he deal with my lip service and half hearted displays of affection towards him, and still see my double-minded heart? How does he not cut me off every time I shrug off his omnipresent grace?

If we were honest with ourselves, it is very seldom (if ever) we love God with ourwhole heart. We are an arrogant, half-hearted people – with a complaining spirit, and fallen minds.

But God is faithful to us, even in the midst of our unfaithfulness to him. Seriously, you have to ask yourself, how does God do it?

Hosea 6:1 points us to the answer: God does it through Christ. It’s all through Christ. All the good, all the forgiveness, all the grace, all the love, all the mercy, all the blessings, all the faith – all mediated to us, through Christ. We know God through Christ. We are reconciled to God through Christ. We are made right, and righteous before God, through Christ. And only inasmuch as we are IN CHRIST can we ever be pleasing to God. Our very presence (not to mention our so-called Christian life) would be repulsive to him, if not for the cleansing and covering that we have in Jesus Christ.

If you don’t know this Jesus, come to Youth this Wednesday and let’s talk. If you do know Him, get on your knees today and thank Him for the healing that comes to you in Him.

‘Hank