“It is true love that I have wanted…” Hosea 6:6 (Phillips)
Often we focus on what we desire, but let’s consider what God desires. A desire is an appetite for something or someone that causes us to want to pursue the object we have affection for. It is a longing that experiences fulfillment when it is satisfied. God is a passionate God who longs for what He wants, and He is either pleased when His desire is met or displeased when his desire is not met.
The verse in Hosea 6:6 is God telling His people that He desires not just their love, but their true love. Hosea’s story is of a prophet married to a woman that was unfaithful to him. God used that story to express the betrayal He felt by the unfaithful love of His people, choosing to be self-sufficient instead of a relationship with Him through dependency. God wants us to be true to Him, to be His; and He desires to be ours. In I Peter 2:9 God calls us His. In Song of Solomon 6:3a it says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” Isaiah 43:1 “I have called you by your name, you are Mine.” You may have failed God at some point in your life, but God’s love will never fail you. Showing you mercy is His delight (Micah 7:18). Turning back to God is what He is after (Ezekiel 33:11).
God called David a man that was “after His heart.” Throughout the Psalms David emphasizes God’s heart; however the psalm I want to look at is Psalm 51. David wrote this psalm when he realized that he had done something that displeased God by taking another man’s wife and arranging for the man to lose his life. David sinned, not only against a man, but also against God. David caused pain to other people, and he displeasure for God. In Psalm 51, several times David mentions his longing to give God what pleases Him. In verse 6 David says, “You desire truth in the inward parts.” In verse 16 he says, “You do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it.” In verse 17 David mentioned what God did not despise – it was “a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.” In verse 19 the King David says, “You will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness.”
What gives God pleasure? In Psalm 147:11 it says, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy.” You give God pleasure when you value and honor His presence in your life. God wants your true love for Him. True love is undivided; it is totally abandoned to the one who holds its heart. True love seeks for nearness, communication, interaction, and to find favor.
Application: Take a moment to tell God, “You are mine, and I am yours.”