ROBBED
Today's reading: Hosea 4-6

"Alcohol and prostitution have robbed my people of their brains." Hosea 4:11 NLT

Robbed-to have taken something away by force; to have removed something valuable with the right to.

God spoke to Hosea about Israel's dire predicament. He mentioned to his prophet that alcohol and prostitution had forced God's own people to turn to idols of wood, figurines of clay, bodies of flesh and bottles of fermented grains for answers to prayer.

'How silly!', some of you are saying to yourself. How could someone EVER think those things would help them?

But the rest of us know how quietly and subtly things can take God's place.

We're bowing our heads in shame, because we've been there.

We're blushing to think of the times we've allowed an enemy to take from us what he had no right to.

We're squirming in our seats in fear that you'll know enough about our own pasts to realize it can happen to anyone.

Maybe it wasn't something from a bottle that veered us off course.

Quite possibly it wasn't even another person who led us astray.

But for each of us, well, at least those of us who will admit it, something got in the way of us and God.

And it caused us to flounder.

It caused us to ache.

It left us empty, broken, bruised and believing we were no longer of use to the Creator.

But it also left us in a beautiful spot for God to do a redeeming work! To exhibit His saving grace! To pour out amazing mercy all over us! To write a page of our testimonies that point to His enduring faithfulness!

So maybe you are in a spot where you know your enemy has robbed you of something. Something that's yours. Something given to you by God. Something that he had no right to take...today would be the perfect day to take it back!