DAILY HOPE DEVOTIONALS: OCTOBER 7 WORK OUT YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (2) SCRIPTURE: HOSEA 10: 12 – 14
During the world of Prophet Hosea, his people Israel though blessed abundantly; got themselves involved in pagan practices. The more God was blessing them the more they were building sacred altars for the pagan gods and goddesses. This is one of the reasons Hosea was asked by God to tell his people to sow to themselves righteousness.
This command is for our world of today. God has blessed our present age abundantly. Instead of living righteously and doing good things for fellow human beings, we have taken to ways of wickedness and worshipping of gods and goddesses. Many people’s hearts are too hardened against God. This is what King James Version referred to as “fallow ground”; a ground left uncultivated.
The Bible here never left us in the dark of what will happen to us if we refuse to sow to our hearts seed of righteousness by doing only things which are right and acceptable to God.
The more the world is cultivating wickedness into her hearts and harvesting crops of sins, God will keep raising “terror of wars” among the people of the world. No amount of armies built and weaponries established will alleviate the world from terrors of wars.
We may try to fortify ourselves and our countries against foreign attacks, yet the fortification will crumble if we fail to do the works of righteousness. The killing of children and women going on today can be stopped if we all work out righteousness. Hear the Bible: “Now the terrors of wars will rise among your people. All your fortification will fall…” (Isa. 25: 12).
Refusal to do work of righteousness may have make God to had permitted attackers to dashed heads of our women and children against hard objects or rocks and be pleased at the action. The Bible says: “Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rocks” (Psa. 137: 9).
Gospel truth is, things will only change for good when the world breaks away from their hardened hearts against God and human beings by works of righteousness. Some of the ways we can work our righteousness is by helping those in need with genuine love.We are to allow our hearts feel the pains of those in torments of hunger and adverse penury. Interestingly, talking of behaving rightly for God to reward us with goodness is rated as the babbling of a mad man these days.
Those who refuse to do right things for God and to human beings, but rather increasing in evil doing, fraternizing with man-made gods and goddesses always witness one problem or the other internally. God has been visiting nations which refuse running after righteousness with wars and natural disasters.
PRAYER:
FATHER, change my hardened heart towards your words and people who deserve my love to doing your words accordingly, and doing good things for the less privileged people around me in Jesus name.
bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch
