Skip to main content

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. 








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MY LITTLE THOUGHTS!!!

I read something that kept me in thoughts for some time now and I saw a new light in it. "Therefore i say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on..." (Matthew 6:25) These are the questions i asked myself after reading it: • "Is the above scripture saying i should not bother about my life or ensure i make something out of my life?" • "Does it mean i should just allow life happen to me and accept whatever it brings to my table (my life)"? I thought it that way because that verse is literally saying,  "you know what, just relax. God got you. You don't have to work or stress yourself. He'll take care of you as He does to the birds of the air and lilies of the field. (Vs 26 & 28)." But same Bible says we should work. The word of God critically downplays laziness and idleness. "For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: T...
Post a Comment
Read more

A GEN Z PROBLEM

You don't have to be surprised by today's blog title. I can assure you that there are challenges this generation are faced with that the previous generations didn't experience.  Just stay with me on this ride. In case you don't know what Gen Z is, GEN Z (Generation Z) is a term refered to individuals born between 1997 and 2012. It isn't really a professional term used to identify those born in those years but it was coined by few individuals. However, it's use gained wide spread around 2010 to 2015 particularly amongst marketers/advertizers, media outlets, researchers and youngsters especially in social media world. I said something about the previous generation known as the millennials (those born between 1981 to 1996) who didn't really face the problems of the 'Gen Z's. "What could it be? "  Simple, SOCIAL MEDIA PRESSURE. Prior to the 21st century (2000's), it is recorded that the world was already digitalized but the soci...
Post a Comment
Read more

NOT JUST THE REGULAR CHRISTIAN

"I'm a very good Christian...a born again Christian at that." "I'm not just a regular Christian because I always go to church and partake in Christian activities." ...and you think that's enough reason to tag you a Christian beyond the ordinary? Please, before thinking you don't fall under the category of a regular Christian, I'd love you to read this article to the end with understanding. In many nations of the world, especially my resident country, Nigeria, many families and individuals acknowledge and believes in Christ which makes them Christians in a literal sense. It may be because it's a "religion" passed down as a family heritage or an influence from family members.  It may be because of christain social influences and networks. It can be exposure to christianity through education or basically for selfish motives (what they can benefit from God). Not all Christians are TRULY Christians in its true context. We ind...
Post a Comment
Read more