Can you really trust God?
March 18th, 2010 by 
Hosea : 2 :14-15
14: Therefore, behold I will allure her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart.
15: There I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Achor (troubling) to be for her a door of hope and expectation, And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Many of us have been taught or think that the enemy has the power to control our circumstances in life. The truth is that nothing can come into our lives unless God Himself allows it. This can be a difficult truth for some of us to embrace. If the bible teaches us that God Himself orders the footsteps of a righteous man or women then we must ask ourselves how we sometimes end up in less than perfect situations?
If we look at Hosea 2 :14 the bible says He, meaning God, allured the children of Israel into the wilderness. Restated, He intentionally brought them to that place for a specific purpose, much like He does with you and me today. He often wants to speak something to us and He knows the only way we will hear is if He has our complete attention. Imagine… God Himself who made the universe, takes time to lure us into a secret place so He can tenderly speak to us about the things that concern us. God also wants to show us the things He wants to change in us by the Power of the Holy Spirit. If we are not careful we begin to complain and grumble about the heartaches we encounter and we miss the sweetest moments of fellowship we may ever have with The Lord, or continue in that wilderness for longer than necessary. This place in the bible is called Achor.
Achor, which means (troubling), is a place that symbolized death and desolation. It comes from the story of Achon. Achon was a man in the Old Testament that had stolen the spoils from an enemy nation and brought judgment on the Israelites. In the story Joshua brought him to Achor to be stoned along with his entire family. Yes, it is possible for one person to bring pain to an entire family by the choices we make. Also in today’s society we don’t often stone people with rocks but instead with words and actions.
Maybe we ourselves have been stoned by someone else’s words or actions. Words that cause rejection, shame, guilt, and brokenness of spirit. Words that make us feel unloved and totally empty without hope and a future. Words that make us feel like a personal failure. Your Achor maybe a tragedy that has left you feeling hopeless… but hold on, the second part of the verse is about to unfold. God say’s that you and I are offered a door of hope and expectation, from our land of Achor.” We ask ourselves “how can a place where so much pain is allowed to come into my life, be for my blessing?” The answer is because all that disappoint, pain, suffering, damage, disillusionment, death, and rejection, is also the place where the only thing you and I can do is hope and expect God to show Himself to us. It is the place He purposely drives us to so He can show Himself strong on our behalf. It is the place that our trust and reliance on Him can grow greater than ever. That’s where the children of Israel saw the greatest miracles performed. Where the plagues were pronounced by God and then swallowed up by His great power. This is where the red sea was parted by the rod of Moses, and this is where Pharaoh issued the death decree to all the babies in Egypt and the Angel of the Lord covered and protected the door posts with the blood of heaven over the first born of the Israelite children.
Now I want you to really get this… The blood of Jesus is covering you and me and the door of hope has the eternal blood-covering over it. Not just once… Not just twice, but for every time you and I need it. It is for every situation you and I find ourselves in. The blood is over our door post and His plans for our future are for good and not for evil, for a hope as our yesterdays are overwhelmed by our future in Him. He has closed the doors of failure and opened the new doors of endless Hope. From this place of hope we can expect the true vineyards God has called us to, to produce substance in our lives as we dance to the new song of hope He plays in the courtyard of our dreams. Don’t give up, your past is not your future, today is your new day of Hope and your Achor is now your place of blessing.
Lastly, life is a process. The children of Israel had to go through the wilderness for God to complete His work in them. That process is still the same for us today. There are different seasons in our lives and we must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and listen to the sound of God’s footsteps in our life. Life with God is a continuous journey that we must learn to find joy in, even when we cannot see the Master’s reasons. We must trust the scripture in Jeremiah that declares His plans for us are good and not for evil and for a hope and a future.
I would like to tell you we can just wave the magic wand and avoid the process of life but that would be untrue and contrary to every hero represented in the Word of God. God, through His Word, speaks about hope differed can make our heart, or spirit, sick. We must learn the truth and let that truth set us free, especially in the difficult days in which we live.
If the bible is true when it says that “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” then we can trust that the things God has promised to us are true, and that even the things that seem to harm us, can lead us to God’s best, if we can learn to trust him more than we trust ourselves.
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