Recently God has lovingly asked me to adjust my conversations with him. Out of neglect, my prayers have become mostly a list of ways I want God to move and act. God, do that, then do this. I’m continually suggesting his next move. I push my preferred destiny on the one who holds the ultimate preferred destination for my life, as if I know better and he needs my help.



Is that what you do too?



Something I’ve noticed on my journey with God is he allows me to be wrong. He allows me to do it wrong. Then, with time as my trust in him grows, he begins to show me a better way. Now, he’s showing me Luke 6:45, “What you say flows from what is in your heart.” This heart was really full of supreme ideas and suggested ways. This heart was full of a need for control and everyone under my control to play nice, just the way I wanted them to. And from my heart, everything I said to God just flowed.



“God, fix this. God, change them. God, stop her.”



But, in a surrender of my heart, God is changing the words that flow from it. He’s simply asked me to give him more praise. Recognize his extraordinary power and my complete dependence on him. See his hand in everything, and trust him wholeheartedly. Give him credit and stop assuming my goodness was the force behind any of this. He is the force, I am not. He is the Creator, I am not. He is the healer, redeemer, provider, restorer, I AM NOT.



And when my heart knows that, then what I say flows from that. I’m in a season where God has asked me to practice words of awe, wonder and praise over requests, pleas and demands.



As God has been dealing with me on this change of my heart, he leads me to a tiny book of the Bible I’ve never studied, Hosea. I must admit, it’s a bit confusing because it starts out like this, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go and marry a prostitute.” Immediately my brain flips a switch that says, “Skim over this, it’s not applicable.” Some of the Bible is a hard read. I can’t pretend to understand it all, and if it were my book, I would have left a whole lot of that out. But it’s not my book. It’s above me. My guess is, it’s above you too.



Good, it keeps us humble and it keeps us seeking. I think that was God’s plan.



As I leaned into God’s word in the book of Hosea, there were things that started leaping off the page at me. Warnings and promises revealed, and to my surprise, they do apply to me. I bet they apply to you too.



The Lord is speaking to his people. He refers to them as his bride. Don’t let that trip you up and don’t let the enemy twist that. Know that it means you are chosen, you are cherished, and you are adored. But as the Lord is speaking to his bride, he shows us there is a problem … she fails to recognize all God has done for her.



Hosea 2:8, “She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has.”



She has become ungrateful. She has become so busy with her blessings that she fails to honor the bless-or. She treats her provisions as if she earned them. She receives without acknowledgment or gratitude and only expects more. She takes it for granted.



SHE IS ME.



Is she you too?



When we fail to realize it was God who gave us everything we have, we face an awakening that comes only through hardship. God says in verse 13, “I will punish her for all those times she forgot about me.”



The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Honey, if you can’t be trusted with your blessings,