The Warmth In God's Heart

My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath. Hosea 11:8b-9

Do we dare talk about the cold today? Should we remind our brothers and sisters of warmer times and places? In Hosea, God lamented the people, His people, turning away from Him, and yet, undeserving as they were, His compassion grew warm and tender. And then, God wills not! The goodness of God comes upon a wicked Israel again, and destruction does not come upon Ephraim. Why? God states that He is God and not a man. As humans, we have known this kind of anger and wished on occasion to see it poured out - on someone else usually.

Imagine for a moment God's righteous anger coming toward us, and suddenly the warmth of compassion grows in our Lord as He sees our weaknesses and tendency toward the sin of unbelief. How easily we doubt; how quickly we fail Him. And as that storm of anger thunders and flashes around the holy throne, God wills and we are saved from His burning anger! What relief, what joy in the Lord's compassion! But, then the next time comes around because we are still unchanged deep within.

In this time, we know of someone working from inside to change us. We know why our Lord's just anger was satisfied and set aside from us. His Son stood in our place. God's justice wins and so does His love, compassion and goodness. We owe everything to Jesus, and we pray that all will come to know His mercy. Show the world the warmth of Jesus we hold in the heart today.

Bucky