Master & Husband

The young woman who spoke at church this evening made a great point - and I wanted to write it out for memories sake. It seems to feed off the theme of milk as infants, meat and potatoes as mature adults. I am paraphrasing her here, but it was quite similar to this:

"I was saved when I was young, 11, at a Christan camp. When I went back to my home it was hard, because my family was in the middle of falling apart. When I spent time reading scripture from then through to high school, I felt like God was "pow pow-ing" me right between the eyes every time with a new truth. It was as if he was holding me in his arms, like a child, and it's probably exactly what I needed as everything else in my life fell apart. He was shouting His words at me, so that I couldn't miss them.

But then...it was as if I couldn't hear Him anymore. I thought, 'Did He leave?' 'Where are You?' 'Why aren't You answering my prayers?' But then I realized He never left, He just wasn't shouting at me anymore. He was whispering. He was teaching me to pursue Him."

What do I see here? Intimacy. Growth. A new way for God to show His love to her. To me. To you. Do you ever feel as though He isn't answering your prayers? Perhaps it's time to listen more carefully. God wants us to know Him better. Here is the example she gave:

"Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.

There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

"In that day," declares the LORD,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me 'my master.

- Hosea 2:14-16

Looking at that last verse, this is what I see: God - He is ALWAYS your master, always. He will never leave you. But this is Him shouting - this is Him holding us tight, which we need a lot of the time. And it is good. But there is more. What you have seen that is good...there is much more. He doesn't just want to be your master, but your husband. It doesn't get much more intimate than that. This is God whispering - teaching you to pursue...isn't that beautiful? What does it look like to be intimate with God, I'm not quite sure...but I sure want to find out, because in finding out, I get to know Him more and I can honestly say that there's nothing more I want in this entire Creation.