THANKFUL

Chatting with Jesus
Thursday, July 3, 2025

Lord, you have a way of revealing spiritual truths through the least known, smallest books of the Bible. One of these is the book of Hosea. The prophet Hosea lived 750 years before you came, but his description of his society easily applies to ours today. Religious, yet godless. Intellectual, yet shallow. Aware of God’s standards yet dismissed them as irrelevant. They followed religious traditions handed down to them, yet their godless lifestyles reflected a rejection of godly morals. Worship was meaningless, just a checkbox they marked as “complete.” You found these people guilty of worshiping the pleasures of life instead of you, Lord, the one true God. Read Hosea’s warning to the culture of his day. Sound familiar?

“There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere— one murder after another. That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away” (Hosea 4:1–3 NLT)

Fast forward 2,700 years, and Hosea’s description of society reflects today’s culture. Humanity’s selfish desires reject change. Thanks be to you, God, we have good news.

Jesus, you came to rescue us from this mess we created when we foolishly turned away from you. We’ve learned our lesson. We’re coming home to you. Only you can heal our land and renew us as people who reflect that you are our God.

Lord, as we prepare to celebrate our 250th anniversary of our nation’s freedom, help us remember that our spiritual freedom comes from you because your sacrifice on the cross has redeemed us from our sin. Thank you, Jesus, for our independence from sin. Amen.