ENMITY WITH GOD

A man of God was instructed by God to marry a woman who was a harlot. Despite the fact the harlot got married to this man of God, it didn't restrict her from continuing in her life of fornication and adultery.

This was the case of Hosea. God instructed him to marry a harlot purposefully to paint a scenerio to Hosea that the Israelites (God's own people) lived the adulterous life toward God.

They belong to God yet had other things in their hearts. In His words to Hosea, God said, "...for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord". (Hosea 1:2c).

The Israelites knew about God but departed from Him. They experienced His mercy, love, faithfulness, goodness, etc.

The red Sea was parted for their sake, they ate food of angels when they had no food, the rock produced water when it seemed hopeless, the strong walls of Jericho crumbled down, they had countless victories in battles against their enemies and many more miracles done for them yet they departed from the Lord.

They felt there was always an alternative; somewhere else to go. They never depended fully on God. This reminds me of the times the Israelites always murmured when faced with challenges in the wilderness on their way to their promised Land. They whined and complained bitterly to Moses wishing they had remained in Egypt because they felt Egypt was rosier than their situation in the wilderness. They saw Egypt as better making it an alternative.

It's heart breaking.

And to see that Christians today are guilty of this saddens me.

They say they love God and belong to Him but they have their hearts with another just like an adulterer.

Now, how do you think God feels whenever we run to, depend on or give our attention to something other than Him?

Can you fathom how Hosea felt when he saw how he shares his wife with outsiders?

Okay... Make it personal

How do you feel when you discover your spouse or spouse to be allocates all his/her attention or divided attention to another person and loves the other instead of you?

It hurts, right?

That's how hurtful it is when something else takes our love, attention, dependence and reliance that's meant to be given to God.

Our God is a jealous God after all.

Giving our attention and heart to the things of this world (materialism, worldly pleasures, sin, pride of life, our fleshly desires) tells we aren't faithful to Him.

James has something to say about this.

"Adulterer and adulteresses, do you not know that FRIENDSHIP with the WORLD is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a FRIEND of the WORLD makes himself an ENEMY of GOD". James 4:4 (NKJV).

You can't possibly be so attached to worldly pleasures and remain faithful to God.

You can't be so materialisic and maintain a healthy love for God

When those things steals your attention, it is literally impossible to love God and His kingdom genuinely because you will be so engrossed with attaining more pleasures it gives. Your love for God will naturally die off at the presence of another.

You can't be in friends with worldliness and its pleasures and be at peace with God. James says we are in enmity with God by loving this world and be encapsulated by it.

If you want to befriend God and remain friends with Him, you have to defriend everything getting in the way of your relationship with Him.

Sin

Worldliness

Materialism

Wickedness

Foreign gods/idols.

Everything and anyone that threatens to hoard your full attention and dependence on God is a distraction from your Lover.

Demas, a steward under apostle Paul fell victim of this. He fell in love with the world and that deviated him from God and His work. He left his first love.

Let's be careful, dear Christians.

Let's remain with our first love, Jesus Christ. Let's never allow worldly pleasures and sin distract us from our Lover.

Whatever that tries to make you think you can survive or live successfully without Christ has stolen your total reliance on God and has doomed you for life.

Without Him, you are nothing.

Whatever that makes you run away from the things of God or feel demotivated to engage in everything about Him has robbed your love for God.

I pray we remain with our first love and never get distracted in Jesus name.

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