Deeper Longings with Yvonne
1 September 2020
My name is Yvonne and I attend the second service.
This season has been a time for me to slow down and reflect on what I have built my house upon. In the last months, I have reflected on the priorities in my life. I was forced to examine where I have placed trust in my own capabilities, or in rewards of this material world, or in systems, or even other people. It is terrifying to watch many of these things fail and fall. My plans go awry. A world we knew is turned on its head by an invisible threat. It seems like every day we are confronted by reports of more chaos, uncertainty, by news of injustice, of oppression, of cruelty. I have frequently in this season felt completely and utterly helpless at the suffering in the world. But I am reminded that building a life with Christ as a firm foundation is a life that will not crumble.
In my struggle for control in a chaotic time, I find myself returning time and again to this one passage. I was traveling alone for a couple of days last year and had spent an entire day in a park. With the luxury of time, I turned off my phone, read God's word and for the first time, prayed for hours. I wanted to share a couple of verses that I read over and over that day in the park that gave me so much comfort in a time of personal suffering.
Hosea 2:14-20
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, and at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
"And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal'. For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
These verses give me hope of restoration, a promise and a blessing of real and vibrant relationship with God.
Lord, we do not understand everything that is happening in this world today. We see a lot of pain, a lot suffering. Each of us are struggling with a frightening time and its aftermath. We have built our lives on things unstable. But even in the wilderness of our despair, you deal with us gently. You pursue us relentlessly, you envelope us in your mercy and your grace. For those of us who are suffering, I pray that you remind us in our affliction of your comfort and deliverance. You will restore us in steadfast love and in faithfulness.
In your Holy name I pray, Amen.