{"id":4437,"date":"2021-09-12T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=4437"},"modified":"2021-08-29T11:16:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T16:16:05","slug":"why-faith-will-make-you-know-god-and-his-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2021\/09\/12\/why-faith-will-make-you-know-god-and-his-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Faith Will Make You Know God and His Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2 minute read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Daily Reading: <\/strong> Hosea 3-6 GW<\/a>; Romans 10 GW<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOuch, God!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s verse lives in the book of Hosea.\u00a0 With a prostitute chosen by God for his wife, Hosea\u2019s calling is to love her every time she cheated on him. (<\/em>Hosea 3:1 GW<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marriage isn\u2019t the topic in this story, how the Israelites constantly turned their back on God, yet God loved them anyway is.  Chapter four of Hosea is the Lord\u2019s legal case against Israel, which doesn\u2019t start well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s anger is at their lack of faith.  Because they lack faith, they don\u2019t know God.  Without God, you can\u2019t know unconditional love.  We\u2019re just like the Israelites.  Every one of us is guilty of cheating on God, somehow, some way. God knows every time we do and still loves us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God never leaves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our world has moved away from God, but He hasn\u2019t moved away from us.  Recently, I spent a Saturday afternoon in a writing seminar titled \u201cWriting for Healing.\u201d  The topic was grief.  Each of the participants had lost loved ones, some tragically.  As we worked through the exercises, I realized quickly, I was the only person of faith in the class, or so I thought.  Listening to the conversations of people dealing with heartbreak without Christ to help them caused me to pray fervently for each of them.  God worked a miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From one person who vehemently denounced God, the conversation turned to another whose grief awakened her relationship with God.  Working towards a close, we discussed the fear associated with grief.  And we ended with the opposite of fear: love.  The facilitator used John\u2019s first letter to make his point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 John 4:18 NIV<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid a group of people bashing God, they ended with God.  He is the only answer to our pain and suffering.  I never spoke; I just prayed, all glory is His.  In Him, we will find love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Check out my new release on Amazon<\/a>. Learn how I used prayer to control my emotions and develop healthier relationships in my life. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lord, thank You for loving us even though we\u2019ve turned our back on You.  Forgive us for constantly straying away from You.  Always bring us back into the fold, Lord.  Don\u2019t let us stray too far.  Protect us from ourselves, Lord.  IJNIP.  Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question for reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is God growing your faith today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 minute read. Daily Reading:  Hosea 3-6 GW; Romans 10 GW \u201cOuch, God!\u201d Today\u2019s verse lives in the book of Hosea.\u00a0 With a prostitute chosen by God for his wife, Hosea\u2019s calling is to love her every time she cheated on him. (Hosea 3:1 GW) Marriage isn\u2019t the topic in this story, how the Israelites… Continue reading Why Faith Will Make You Know God and His Love<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4437"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4442,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4437\/revisions\/4442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}