10 Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
~Hosea 1:10

There are moments in life where I do not feel like one of God’s people… moments where I am stressed, overwhelmed, and nothing seems to be going “right.” They are the moments where it seems like God is not present or working in my life, let alone the whole world. Moments like those that the Israelites experienced when they turned their backs on God.

This week has been one of those moments.

In preparing for Sunday, I came across this passage from Hosea, a book I generally avoid because it is, at its core, a politically charged call for the people of God to act in the world. And it has stuck with me because it is a promise that despite what the Israelites have done or experienced prior to this point of Hosea’s story, God will step in and take care of all. But first, they must live through this moment where God has chosen to take a step back due to their lack of interest.

Which means there are moments where we will experience a darkness of sorts that signifies a lack of seeing God in the world. And when we do, we are called to remember that those who turn to God are still Children of God- beloved, cherished, and forgiven.

There is a prayer by Ted Loder in his book Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle that I have turned to multiple times this week. I want to share it with you know so that those who are experiencing a lack of God right now, and those of you who aren’t, might find peace and a reminder that God has not left.

“Gather Me to Be with You”
By Ted Loder

O God, gather me now to be with you as you are with me.
Sooth my tiredness;
quite my fretfulness;
curb my aimlessness;
relieve my compulsiveness;
let me be easy for a moment.
O Lord, release me from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly;
from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip,
that I may be open to receiving what you give,
to risking something genuinely new,
to learning something refreshingly different.
O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.
Forgive me
for claiming so much for myself that I leave no room for gratitude;
for confusing exercises in self-importance with acceptance of self-worth;
for complaining so much of my burdens that I become a burden;
for competing against others so insidiously that I stifle celebrating them
and receiving your blessing through their gifts.
O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.
Keep me in touch with myself,
with my needs,
my anxieties,
my angers,
my pains,
my corruptions,
that I may claim them as my own rather than blame them on someone else.
O Lord, deepen my wounds into wisdom;
shape my weaknesses into compassion;
gentle my envy into enjoyment,
my fear into trust,
my guilt into honesty,
my accusing fingers into tickling ones.
O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

Loder, Ted. “Gather Me to Be with You” in Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1981) Pages 76-77.

Comment your thoughts below !

Blessings friends,
Pastor Nicole