Hosea 7:14a "They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds."
Wow, I was reading from Hosea this morning and I stopped when I read this verse. Listen to what it says. I will paraphrase…
When I am crying out in pain or confusion or suffering…I sometimes do not even cry to the right source. God is accusing Israel of wailing upon their bed because of their captivity, but they do not cry out to him from their hearts.
What a revealing statement! You know what you turn to first and it is not always your heavenly Father.
The prophets call this what it is…idols! Israel turned to idols that they had made to solve their worries. Idols are what you worship. My first response to a problem that causes me to “wail” is often to turn to others or mind numbing entertainment or shopping or whatever. Those are my idols.
Think of the last time you were going through a bad time in your life. Maybe it involved finances, a broken relationship, health issues, you name it. To "wail upon our bed" could be a literal wailing or just experiencing a pain with no hope, no end in sight. God is asking us "How long will you wait until you cry out from your heart to me?" How long will it take for us to completely turn to the one who has the solution?
When we pray to God, do we think of him as human, like us? We need to realize, deep in our being, that we are asking help from someone who is NOTHING like us. Can't you just imagine that God is watching us with utter amazement, thinking "Why are you turning to some wooden idol to solve your problem, when you could be turning to me?"
Notice that he said to cry from our hearts and not our mind. Our minds may rationalize that just because we can't see a solution in sight, it must be hopeless. Learn to pray for the unseen, not the seen. Our minds can't grasp the unseen...a heart that trusts in a mighty God can see the future through his eyes. He will keep us in that perfect peace if our heart is stayed on him.
