Friends, if you’ve been reading along these past couple of weeks, you know that I love digging into the original meaning of the Biblical text and seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance to apply the meaning to my life (which is called Biblical hermeneutics). At the same time, and as I mentioned in Friday’s devotion, I know that I must hang on to Jesus at all times and in every season of life as I want to witness more of His miraculous work. So, even when I can’t physically see what God is doing in the natural (earthly) realm, I still must trust and have blind faith that He is working all things for good (Rom 8:28). His divine connections are truly miraculous, and I love when He allows me to bear witness to them.
If you’re asking how to trust and have blind faith, for me it comes from truly believing with every fiber of my being that God is everywhere at all times (omnipresent), and that His unlimited power can do absolutely anything (omnipotent), because He has all knowledge of the past, present, and future (omniscient). This belief doesn’t mean that my trust and blind faith are at some heightened level, please know that the enemy seeks to challenge my trust and blind faith in God all of the time. During the sermon that I offered on July 13, 2025, I talked about how faith requires action. If I do not remain in the Word of God and in communion (prayer) with Jesus every single day (and at various times throughout each day) I can begin to feel the enemy’s oppression seeking my soul (my mind, will, and emotions). I know I belong to Jesus, and so when the enemy seeks to try and convince me of anything different, I turn to Jesus (His Word) to validate what I know to be Truth about my existence as an invaluable part of His Creation, that I am His, and that He is my God. You are just as invaluable to God as a one-of-a-kind part of His Creation, He is yours, and you are His.
Friends, God talked about us through the Old Testament prophet, Hosea, and again He reminded us through the New Testament apostle, Paul, that we are all called His people. God is ours and we are His. In Hosea’s message, the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, were portrayed as a cheating wife and God as the broken hearted yet still ever-loving husband in an effort to reveal that God’s heart (like Hosea’s heart) was shattered by His wife’s unfaithfulness. It is within this passage where we see the prophetic message that we, as Gentiles, will be grafted into God’s Family. In Paul’s message, about 750 years after Hosea’s prophetic message, Paul explains that God’s love is extended to not only the Jews, but to also the Gentiles, and this had to be unbelievable for the first century Jews. Paul used the prophecy from Hosea 2:23 within Romans 9:25 to make sure that humanity understood and will continue to understand that God’s mercy, grace, and love is available to everyone, Jews and Gentiles, and that there are no more boundaries (traditional, racial, religious, lineage, etc.), rather only God’s unending love all and His promise to reclaim and save His people.
Hosea 2:23 (NLT)
23 At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites
and raise them for myself.
I will show love
to those I called ‘Not loved.’
And to those I called ‘Not my people,’
I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’
And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”
Romans 9:25 (NLT)
25 Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,
“Those who were not my people,
I will now call my people.
And I will love those
whom I did not love before.”
Today’s prayer is a portion of Peter Talbott’s prayer during yesterday’s time of worship. It goes perfectly with today’s devotion and how we should begin our week. Blessings, dearest brothers and sisters.
Prayer: Lord, help us start this week with You by our side. Stir in us a deep desire to come into further connection with You. Remind us that it is not solely by going to Sunday service that we worship and come before you; rather, it is through our daily prayers and reading Your Word that allows us to form a deep relationship with You. We ask all of this within Your Name, Jesus. Amen.