#9 Great is Your faithfulness

“I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord”

(Hosea 2:20)

Today, I write my first post of ‘romance’ week. I started to think about what it meant to be romanced by the Lord Himself, to return to my first love and sit at His feet. In doing this, it was impossible not to think about His glorious faithfulness. My love for Him has seen peaks and troughs over my 25 years, but yet His for me has remained the same. I’ve acted in ways He detests, I’ve spoken and thought things I shouldn’t, but yet my God has never forsaken me and He promises that He never will. I cannot think of a more 'romantic’ place to start. The fact that despite my poor attempts at living for Him sometimes, His love for me is everlasting. He’s not looking at my performance, nor is He looking at my knowledge of His Word He’s looking for my heart to turn towards Him. And every single time it does He doesn’t remember the nonsense of last year, last week or five minutes ago. Great is His faithfulness.

Although The Bible is littered with the Lord’s promises to love us eternally (John 10:28, Jeremiah 31:3 to name but a few!) one book in particular really encapsulates just how relentlessly faithful the God I serve truly is. That book is Hosea. The book of Hosea depicts Israel’s continued unfaithfulness towards the Lord in their worship of false God’s. This unfaithfulness is seen in a number of images showing Israel to be: a promiscuous wife, an indifferent mother and many more. The unfaithfulness Israel continually shows does not prevent the Lord from loving unconditionally.

I read 'Redeeming Love’ by Francyne Rivers recently, which tells the story of Hosea beautifully in a very personal way. In doing this, I was inspired to write about God’s faithfulness myself and I ended up with a poem. The poem tells the story of a woman who is far more interested in looking for man’s attention than for God’s even though He’s desperate for hers. This is something that myself and no doubt countless other Christian women have fallen into the trap of. In times like these I must remember that no one ever can, nor ever will love me like Jesus Christ can.

Heart on the line for a piece of peace,

not understanding that You already said “paid in full”.

I sell my heart for a cheap remark,

his half-hearted commitment tells me I’ll do for now,

and yet I fall at his feet fawning over his every word.

You tell me that I’m redeemed by Your everlasting love, and you’ll be with me for eternity,

and I barely tear myself away from analysing his latest text.

This isn’t the first time,

oh no, there’s been more,

and like Israel before me, I’ve played the whore.

The notion of choosing him over You is a lot more obscene than the language I’ve used.

You turn Your face for a moment, weeping over Your daughter being bought by a lie.

But You can’t stay away. No, You search me out and say “you are Mine.”

You do this time, after time, after time

I do this to myself because Your love ever remains,

but yet I don’t see freedom, preferring the chains.

Your relentless pursuit intrigues me, but apparently not enough to stop running from You.

Because here I am,

no man’s land.

At first I don’t see, but You’re here with me.

You stare, seeing into the very soul You created.

My barriers start to come down and I stare back inwardly praying that Your love goes deeper than his surface sentimentality,

outwardly trying to hold onto my defences, scared that I’ll lose myself in You,

not realising that only there I’ll be truly found.