But the fruit of the
Spirit is love…
Hosea 3:1 (ESV) The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is
loved by another and is an
adulteress. Love her as the LORD
loves the Israelites, though
they turn to other gods…
The fruit of love in our lives allows us to do what would
otherwise be impossible. God asked a most difficult thing of Hosea – go and
marry a prostitute. Gomer was a self-enslaved prostitute taken by Hosea
straight out of the brothel. God said, “Go and love this woman, even though other men lust after her, even though
she has sold herself to others, I want you
to love her as I love My people.”
Talk about unconditional love, independent of the receiver’s track record!
As we grow in our relationship with God, He starts to ask
us to step out in faith and follow in His footsteps. God was not asking Hosea
to do anything that He Himself was not willing to do. The Bible tells us that
because Jesus walked the earth as a man and experienced temptation and struggle
and death He can sympathize with us when we go through these same things. God
also sympathizes with us when loving our neighbour or forgiving our enemy seems
impossible. Many times He has loved the unlovable.
Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom, tells of a time when
she was speaking on forgiveness in a church sometime after the war was over.
After the service she was approached by one of the worst Nazi guards from her
own concentration camp. He was so blessed by her message of forgiveness and the
news that God could forgive even his
sin, and he stuck out his hand to her. She had no desire to touch this man or
to forgive. She prayed twice for the ability and finally grasped the hand in
front of her. At that moment, tingles spread through her body as she was filled
with love for the man who had made her life utter torment.
How is such forgiveness possible if not for the fruit of
love developed through God’s work in our lives?
PRAYER &
MEDITATION
1. Ask God in which area or relationship in your life He
wants you to apply today’s devotional to. What does He want from you?
2. Tell God how you feel about the thing He has asked of
you.
3. In prayer, ask God to enable you to love the way He has
loved you. Commit your way to Him and trust in Him.
