This past week Chad and I have been writing the content for Second Mile’s week of prayer and fasting booklet. Several times throughout last year’s book Hosea 10:12 is referenced. At the beginning of last year, many of you memorized the verse. Do you remember it? If you review consistently I’m sure you do. Many of you learned it in the ESV translation, but I learned it many moons ago in the NIV. Quote it with me if you know it:
Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness. Reap the fruit of His unfailing love. Break up your unplowed ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers His righteousness upon you.
Last year during the week of prayer, we prayed this for ourselves and our church. Review it for a minute and ask yourself how you’ve actually applied it over the last year.
Have you sown righteousness or have you continued to live by your flesh?
Doesn’t the “fruit of His unfailing love” sound sweet? What has it looked like for you to reap this precious fruit? What new ways have you discovered His love for you never fails?
Have you surrendered your unplowed or fallow ground to Him? What have you done to break up the rocky soil in your life?
In what ways have you been seeking Jesus? How have you experienced a showering of His righteousness? Are you willing to continue seeking Him as He pours our His unfailing love and righteousness on you? What if it means there will continue to be unplowed ground in your life that needs to be broken up?
My heart was so encouraged and heavy (in a good way) as I’ve pondered these things in preparation for the coming week of prayer. He has been faithful to work in the ways we asked Him to work. The stories of your lives bare witness to the fact that Jesus is in fact breaking up our fallow ground. I have personally seen people put their heads down to do the hard work of seeking Him and His righteousness.
Through a season of sowing into Him, a season of rich harvest is sure to come. As I considered these things over the last week, I was humbled, amazed, and excited to realize how beautifully the passage He led me to start the year goes hand in hand with Hosea 10:12.
Please read it again as a prayer for yourself, Jesus’ church, and the nations.
Psalm 67
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make His face shine upon us,
Selah
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear Him
I’m praying this year will be a year of people choosing to follow Jesus for the first time; a year of harvest in ministry, personal triumph, and relational unity. I’m asking Jesus to use Second Mile as a light to our city and a light to the world. I’m asking God to show us what it truly means for Him to bless us so that the ends of the earth will fear Him.
Post your verses, friends! I can't wait to read which ones you're learning!
Post your verses, friends! I can't wait to read which ones you're learning!
