SCRIPTURE: Hosea 10
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. [Hosea 10:12]
Hosea explains that when Israel prospered, they forgot about God.
Instead they immersed themselves in immorality and unrighteousness.
He then warns that as a consequence God will punish them, “to put them in bonds for their double sin.” [Hosea 10:10]
But in this verse, he pleads with them to repent, to seek God and His righteousness, to invest themselves in what is good and moral, so that He can bless them.
Seek Him first, and He will shower His blessings on you!

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [Matthew 6:33]
Sound familiar?
Jesus is challenging the disciples for making prosperity and pleasure their first priority, instead of God.
He shows them that all their scurrying and worrying is not making them better off, but is actually making them more miserable.
He then makes the same appeal: seek God first, and He will bless you with “all these things as well.”

We love the gifts, but we forget the Giver of the gifts.
We become consumed by the blessings, but forget the One that blesses us.
The folly of this is that as we move away from God, we move away from the One that blesses us with the gifts.
If we seek God, we gain “all these things as well”; when we seek “all these things” we lose both the things, and the God that blesses us with “all these things as well.”
This is a perfect description on North American culture, so blessed yet so miserable.
So full, yet so empty; prospering on the outside but withering on the inside.
If we describe our culture as a “spreading vine”, the vine is dying!
If Hosea and Jesus were here, this is what they would say to us:
Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. [Hosea 10:12]

PRAYER:
Lord, there is no denying that I am extremely blessed. And yet I am enjoying the gifts, but neglecting the Giver. Remind me and help me today to seek You first!