How to Reap Mercy

Hosea 10:12-13

12 Sow for yourselves righteousness;

Reap in mercy;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the Lord,

Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

13 You have plowed wickedness;

You have reaped iniquity.

You have eaten the fruit of lies,

Because you trusted in your own way,

In the multitude of your mighty men.

Too often we rely on ourselves for success or on the wisdom of people to follow what we should do with our lives. Kids think there's excitement in breaking the rules. Spouses think there's more excitement in finding another significant other. Pursuing vices, excess, and various sins is only exciting for a moment. The consequences of these things are always a higher price than we realize at the beginning, when Satan passes them in front of us.

Take a certain high profile personality who has been sentenced to prison. Drugs and sex led him down a path he may have never intended to go. I don't know. He probably never thought what he was doing would actually send him there. There are always consequences for our actions, whether in this life or the next. I pray this experience will cause him to change his life and he will pursue a cleaner life with Jesus from here out.

But such is the path of sin. It will always take us further than we want to go, keep us longer than we want to stay, and cost us more than we want to pay.

Whether this sounds harsh or not, going to prison may be both the judgment and mercy of God. God could have allowed him to die at any point and he would never get a chance to change.

We can't fight Satan. The best way to win a battle with sin is to never enter it to begin with. Avoid temptation. Don't do the things you know to be wrong. If you are tempted, admit to God you are incapable of winning this fight and ask Jesus to fight the battle for you. He is more than willing to take the fight and conquer Satan for you. As one gentleman pointed out, it's extremely liberating when we don't have to fight and we let Jesus do it for us.

God wants to bless us. He wants to see us succeed in following Him. In addition to His love for us, that's why He gives us so many chances to change how we live.

Jesus promises that if we follow Him, He will rain down righteousness upon us. The blessings of God far outweigh the temporary pleasures of sinful behavior. You get better results by doing things the right way rather than the wrong way.

Blessings to you all.