make me prove it / hosea

I was just challenge by a friends blog post - which inspired this blog post.

she said: “I don’t want following you to be easy, challenge me. I want to prove that my love for you is real, deep, enduring and unshakable.

i echo that.

see, the paradox is that we try our very best in life to avoid challenging things and are constantly looking for an easy road. but on the other hand, it is through the challenges and the hardships that we feel the most alive. it's also in the challenges and hardships that you find out whether or not you actually have the faith you claim to posses. not some pre-trial, naive, idealistic, emotional high feeling about God, but an honest wrestling, questioning, doubting, conquering and enduring faith that is not shaken. if you've ever had a situation that you thought was absolute hell and then later when it was all said and done looked back and had nothing but gratitude for the whole wretched thing - you know what i mean. we want to be saved from the storms, but sometimes the storms save us.

jesus never promises it will be easy. as a matter of fact he says the exact opposite.

the other part that hit me was Hosea 2:14- “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her…” - Just think about God enticing and coaxing a prostitute whom he is madly in love with into the desert to whisper sweet nothings in her ear. It doesn't matter that she has had so many other lovers - God is sold on her.

it's kind of scandalous.