God is the Only One Who Satisfies

A few years ago, insecure and unwilling to accept that God could actually provide the fulfillment I was desperate for, I looked everywhere else.

It's so easy to do, right?

In that moment, the Spirit gently led me to a beautiful story tucked towards the end of the Old Testament: the book of Hosea. It is the story of a man commanded to marry a woman, Gomer, who would constantly leave, forsaking their covenant. And I wept at the beautiful truth here.

We are all Gomer. We leave our truest love searching for things to root our identity in and find satisfaction in. But what do we find? When we root ourselves in things that are temporary and imperfect, those things will always let us down, because they were never meant to satisfy. And then the natural order of things is that we keep grasping for things that cannot make us whole.

But here is the thing that amazes me- God's reaction to this: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her" (Hosea 2:14, ESV). We are met with love; with wooing; with the Father who wants to lovingly guide us back into His arms. He has every right to wag His finger and walk away and yet He chooses to say, "I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you me in steadfast love and in mercy" (Hosea 2:19, ESV).

Sister, the prayer of my heart as you read this is that you seek encouragement in the love of our Father. The faithful God, who will redeem us and only one able to satisfy. Sometimes, it is tempting to keep running. We convince ourselves, there is no way God will take me back or want me this time. But what we learn from this beautiful story is He does want you, He will take you back. "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6, ESV).

We all need a daily dose of this truth. Root yourself in Christ. Abide daily in Scripture. Run into His loving embrace. I promise it's worth it.