“What am I chasing after?” This question came about after I studied the book of Hosea.
Many of us might be familiar with the book of Hosea and his love story with Gomer. She is the unfaithful wife of Hosea. Their love story depicted how Israel sinned against God by being idolaters and God’s faithfulness despite their unfaithfulness to Him.
As I was reading the entire book of Hosea, I was running a story in my head. Like me, you might probably admire Hosea for sacrificing his love for someone who does not deserve it. I could not grasp how I could accept that if I were in his situation. Yet, out of his love for the Lord, he obeyed and married his wife even to the point of redeeming and loving her after she committed adultery.
But what kept me thinking is not Hosea’s obedience nor love for the Lord but his wife’s worldliness. At first, I thought about the foolishness of Gomer by going after her lovers and leaving Hosea several times which in the end, her lovers forsook her and even sold her for fifteen pieces of silver.
But then again, the Lord opened my eyes to see a precious gem of lesson that I want to share with you.
Worldliness defined as being concerned with material things or worldly affairs more than spiritual matters. And, that is how Gomer was in the story (as how Israelites were so concerned with the physical needs and went after gods to provide for them).
“. . . I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink,” (2:5)
Bread. Water. Wool. Flax. Oil. These things that Gomer chase after were the same things that people look for. In our contemporary time, these are food, money, material possessions, status, and all the things that give us comfort and convenience in life. These are the things that entice us to walk with the world and forget the most important thing – to go after the One who gives us life and provides all the things that we need.
Often times, even Christians are much more concerned with the worldly affairs rather than spiritual. There is nothing wrong with acquiring these things but if these material blessings become the love and the center of our lives, then it is time to rethink our walk with the Lord.
If we find ourselves waking up and thinking about them in a way that our hearts are slowly becoming cold towards pursuing God, then we are now loving the world and not God.
I used to go after these things because I thought it would satisfy my soul. A tragedy that came my way has tested my faith which made me realized that these things that many of us seek and sometimes die for are nothing but shallow deception of feeling complete and satisfied while in reality, we are empty people trying to fit in a fake world. In the end, they will leave us discouraged, disappointed, and empty no matter how vast we have accumulated and how great we have attained. Like Gomer, I failed to swerve my mind from natural to the spiritual realm where God said that He is the Bread of Life (John 6:35) and the Living Water (John 4:14) and in Him we shall not want (Psalm 23:1).
See how Gomer chased after these things but in the end, she was left with nothing but shame.
The world offers so much. But with all those things, our heart will never find its satisfaction. It always longs for something that only God can fill in. And even though the world brings enticing things, it always leaves us discontented, discouraged, and dissatisfied. On the surface, it looks like they can bring us happiness but we will definitely end up feeling brokenhearted and loser.
How can we know this? Just look around and remember those famous, rich, and popular people who seemed perfectly living yet, they chose to end their lives. Some are also dealing with mental and emotional problems. Thus, we can conclude that these things won’t make us happy and full in life.
A hard lesson that I have learned while suffering is that I can never walk with the world and long for God. I can never desire the things of the world and enjoy my walk with Him.
Our natural mind seeks and understands what we can perceive physically, but our soul and spirit when connected with God understands that those things won’t matter much. Yes, we are to provide food on our table, clothing for our body, and shelter for our safety and protection but chasing after them with all our might and forgetting the Lord because of them is a great failure and foolishness.
We might be thinking that Gomer is crazy. But it dawned on me how at some point, we are like her. We become blinded because of our physical desires. We focus on the temporal things of life and not the things with eternal value.
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
What are the things that you go after in this life?
Maybe it is time to sit down and evaluate our lives in line with eternity.
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