Devotional thought for our days…

¹⁴  “But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. ¹⁵  I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. ¹⁶  When that day comes,” says the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’ Hosea 2:14-16 (NLT)

15 But respect Christ as the holy Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to answer everyone who asks you to explain about the hope you have, 16 but answer in a gentle way and with respect 1 Pet 3:115-16 NCV

66 My God, teach me how to love! My God, teach me how to pray!

Every once in a while, when doing bills, I put the wrong month in, and sometimes the wrong year.

It is hard for me to accept we are in 2017, and that we are almost at 2018.  It seems that this should be in the future, way in the future.  

Similarly, it sometimes feels like the promises of God aren’t here yet, like 2017 shouldn’t be,  I can’t see it, I can’t picture it, even while I long for those days when my hopes, my expectations will be fulfilled.  The expectations and hope that make up my faith, the answers I need to answer people with, as St Peter says, in a gentle way and with respect. Even to those who do not respect me, especially to those who do not respect me, or God.

That is the amazing thing that gives me hope!  

We see it in the underlined part of the first reading, these people who hated GOd, who turned away from Him and worshipped gods they made of wood and metals and gems.  Those who ignored what He would say, especially when He told them that He loved them.

These people of God wouldn’t call him master, they wouldn’t call Him by some official titles, but they were to use an endearment to call Him by, a name that revealed the love that they recognized was between them.

For God would win our affections back, God would restore us, and we would willingly give ourselves to Him, a response to His healing and caring for us.

FOr we would finally realize that He loves us!

We are Christ’s bride, not His slave, we are the Father’s beloved children not, the servants who run from His anger. We are the companions of the Holy Spirit.  RElationships that are not bound by law, but love.  A relationship that began because God was stubborn and patient, not willing to let us perish, but bringing about in us a change of mind…

A change that comes when we begin to see His love for us fully revealed at the cross.

May we realize this is now – this hope, this expectation is not just in the future, some far off date when we finally realize He loves us.  That was revealed at the cross, and at our baptism, and every time we share in the Body and Blood of Christ at the altar.

This is our reason for hope, our assurance of everlasting life, with the God who doesn’t want us to call Him Lord and Master, but beloved…for

He loves us…

And so we pray, with St Josemaria, that God would teach us how to love, how to interact with Him!.  Lord have mercy on us!  (And be confident and know He has!)

Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 452-454). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.