Returning
/March 9
Hosea 6:1–3
“Come, let us return to the LORD.”
Illustration by Gustave Doré
Lent is a season of returning. During this 40-day season, we are supposed to return to the Lord. For some of us, this means that for too long, we’ve been running away from the Lord. For others, it means we intentionally pause to look to the Lord. Rather than remain focused on everything that is happening around us, we slow down, reflect on our sin and our Savior. But how can we reflect on our sin and Savior without returning to the Lord. The Christian life is a life of continual repentance. During this season, we should be broken over our sin and overjoyed to be found in a loving savior.
Hosea is a painful yet hopeful book of the Bible. God calls Hosea to some radical actions, yet all with the purpose of powerfully displaying God’s love. In Hosea, the people of God are urged to return to the Lord. They have sinned and fallen away from the Lord. Hosea writes that while God has punished the people, God will “heal us” and “bind us up.” Hosea goes on to say, “After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him” (Hosea 6:2). Interestingly, in the midst of Hosea prophesying that God will restore his people, he is also foretelling Jesus’s resurrection, that on the third day he will “raise” us up. The point is this: God wants to heal, bind up, and revive us. But to experience God’s healing touch, we must act. As Hosea declared, “Come, let us return to the LORD.” While repentance should never be confined to a particular period of time, Lent is that season where we can focus our hearts, repent, and return to the Lord. So, will you return to the Lord?
Reflection
- Do an inventory of your life. Where do you need to repent and return to the Lord?
- Take some time today to repent of the things the Lord has shown you you need to repent of.
- Thank God that he offers to revive us and that he has revived us.