The Longing of His Heart, a devotional thought

There's this place in Hosea 7:13 where God bears his soul to us, so to speak, showing us the inner longings of his heart with a tenderness and a transparency that should stop us in our tracks. Throughout the chapter, he's been grieving the spiritual rebellion of his people. They've rejected his Way; they're counting on foreign alliances to prosper them rather than trusting in him; and they're worshipping hand-made things instead of enjoying life with him. And then in verse 13, he gives us a little glimpse of his heart for us: "I would redeem them," it says, "but they speak lies against me." The NIV's translation is even more poignant: "I long to redeem them, but they speak lies against me."

God, it turns out, is passionate about redemption, longing to be the redeemer God in our lives. And one of the things that keeps us from experiencing him like this, it seems, is holding to an untrue, inaccurate or self-deceptive view of him. To be redeemed is to be set free from God-lies--the false perceptions of God that we cling to because they're easier, because they're safer, because they're ours to control, or whatever the reason--and in order to be redeemed, Hosea would add, we must let go of these things. To let God be God as God is, our own human limitations on what a god can or can't do or be damned-- this is, perhaps, a scary way to be sometimes; but it is also, I think, a path to the deepest kind of life with him.