A temporal spanking?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Hosea 2:2-23

TO CHEW ON: "For she did not know

That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,

And multiplied her silver and gold —

Which they prepared for Baal.

Therefore I will return and take away

My grain in its time

And My new wine in its season

And will take back My wool and My linen

Given to cover her nakedness." Hosea 2:8-9

When children are little, physical punishment is something they understand often better than words and reasoning (even though spanking is certainly out of favour with the modern parenting gurus). Here God threatens to administer a temporal spanking to Israel, who has been pursuing affairs with idols, just as Hosea's wife Gomer has gone after other men.

God's tone is one of hurt aroused to the point of indignation as He speaks to Israel about her unfaithfulness:

"She did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, oil; Therefore I will return and take away My grain...and new wine...She has said 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me,' so I will make them a forest..." Hosea 2: 8, 9, 12.

Israel is interpreting her physical abundance as the payment for her allegiance to Baal instead of coming from the God of heaven. So God says, in effect, I'll take it away. Maybe that will drive you back to Me.

As I read this, I think how we are often like that too. We attribute success, provision, all the good stuff we have as resulting from our own hard work, or keen intellect, or stable government, or luck, or karma — anything but God. It's interesting to view, as a contrast, the range of temporal blessings that the Bible says come from God's hand and are an evidence of His favour:*

• The wealth of the patriarchs - Genesis 24:35; Genesis 26:12.

• The sturdiness of the Israelites' clothes and shoes while they wandered for 40 years over rough desert terrain - Deuteronomy 29:5.

• The well-being of Obed-Edom's household while he housed the Ark of the Covenant - 2 Samuel 6:11.

• The riches and honour of Solomon, given as a by-product of his request for wisdom - 1 Kings 3:13.

• Rain and the seasons to make earth productive - Psalm 65:9; Acts 4:17.

• The success of secular rulers to the extent that even the animal kingdom is on their side, as they serve God's purposes (though they may not realize or acknowledge it) - Jeremiah 27:6

• Along with material wealth, the ability to flourish spiritually - 2 Corinthians 9:10.

Do we acknowledge the real Source of the myriad blessings in our lives? When week after week there is food in the fridge, money for gas, health to live comfortably, do we thank God? Or do we, like the Israelites, attribute those blessings to ourselves or someone else? If we do we may, like them, be at risk of God withdrawing His bounty as He seeks to draw our attention back to Him.


PRAYER: Dear God, help me to understand the degree to which I am dependent on You for all the good things in life. Help me to be a person of habitual thankfulness for Your blessings to me throughout my days. Amen.


MORE: "How is God making my life full right here, right now?"

In her book One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp writes about how nurturing an attitude of gratitude toward God changed the outlook of her life. Moira Brown of 100 Huntley Street interviewed Ann about the book in March 2011. In the two segments below, Ann explains what brought about the focus of gratitude in her life and how she continues to foster it.

Part 1 − 8:30 minutes

Part 2 − 9:38 minutes

*Email subscribers: to read the verses without looking them up, visit the article on the web, where a text box widget displays the verse when you hover the mouse over the reference.

Marvelous things without number

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Job 5: 1-27

TO CHEW ON: "But as for me, I would seek God,

And to God I would commit my cause

who does great things and unsearchable

Marvelous things without number." Job 5:8,9

Ann Voskamp's little sister died in a tragic accident when Ann was only four. That incident dyed her life's outlook so that even after she had her own six beautiful children, she lived in the night of mistrust. She writes in her memoir One Thousand Gifts:

"The fruit's poison has infected the whole of humanity. Me. I say no to what He's given. I thirst for some roborant, some elixir to relieve the anguish of what I've believed: God isn't good. God doesn't love me.


If I'm ruthlessly honest, I may have said yes to God, yes to Christianity, but really, I have lived the no. Infected by that Eden mouthful, the retina of my soul develops macular holes of blackness. From my own beginning, my sister's death tears a hole in the canvas of the world" -  One Thousand Gifts, Kindle Location (KL) 139.

Job, whom Eliphaz is addressing in today's reading, had every reason to be skittish around God too after the series of calamities that pounded him. Though not all of Elphaz's advice is worth following, his admonish to Job to shift his focus to God's doings of "great things and unsearchable" is good.

That's what rescued Ann. A friend's challenge to her to identify, name, and list one thousand things for which she was grateful — in other words, to start noticing God's good gifts — outfitted her with a whole new set of life lenses.

I personally have joined Ann's "Gratitude Community." We share each Monday, at her A Holy Experience blog, our lists of gifts from the past seven days. The clincher for me was finally "seeing" the reference to thanksgiving in even my own life verse:

Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God...- Philippians 4:6,7.

Why don't you try it? Today, instead of focusing on worries and what ifs, on aches and pains, on dour predictions and dark expectations, turn the tapestry of your life around and study it for blessings. You may find, with Ann:

"The act of naming grace moments, this list of God's gifts, moves beyond the shopping list variety of prayer and into the other side. The other side of prayer, the interior of His throne room, the inner walls of His powerful love-beating heart. The list is God's list, the pulse of His love — the love that thrums on the other side of our prayers. And I see for now what it really is, this dare to write down one thousand things I love. It really is a dare to name all the ways God loves me. The true Love Dare. To move into His presence and listen to His love unending and uncontainable. This is the vault of miracles - One Thousand Gifts, KL 780 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, help me, today, to catch that "love that thrums on the other side of my prayers." I want to live with my eyes open to your "marvelous things without number" today. Amen.

MORE: #1

The book trailer to One Thousand Gifts is more than just an advert for a great book. Watch it (below), then count it as #1 on your own list of 1000 gifts.