You thought I was worth saving, so You came and changed my life

You thought I was worth keeping, so You cleaned me up inside

You thought I was to die for, so You sacrificed Your life

So I can be free, so I can be whole, so I tell everyone I know…

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This week, gospel recording group, Anthony Brown and Group Therapy, released a single called “Worth.” The song presents a beautiful, yet powerful message that in spite of all the mess we have done or are currently involved in, Jesus still thinks we were worth dying for. While this song, in all its beauty, is full of truth, I need to point out something not so apparent from the lyrics. Jesus thought we were worth dying for before we committed our first sin…before we got saved and accepted Him as Lord…before we “got our act together.” Our redemption was a part of the plan from the beginning of time, from the moment God decided to create us and give us free will. To make the point even clearer, I was led one day to read the story of Hosea in the Old Testament. Hosea isn’t one of the more “popular” books of the bible, but for me, it paints the clearest picture of what God really did than any other book in the Bible.

Hosea chapter 1 opens up with a startling command from God to the prophet Hosea: “Go take yourself a wife of harlotry.” The NLT version says, “Go and marry a prostitute so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution.” Now, I wonder to myself, who in the world would ever agree to marry a prostitute? Why would anyone be willing to enter into a sacred union with someone knowing they would be unfaithful, even if the Lord was the one requiring it? I’m just being honest in saying that this would be one of those times when I would question if I was really hearing from God. But nonetheless, Hosea did as he was instructed and married this person who indeed ended up cheating on him and producing children who bore the curse of her infidelity. But this isn’t the end of the story. This was all a part of God’s larger plan to demonstrate His practice of restoration. Before Hosea even got married, God had already commanded that he must restore his wife back to her rightful place as soon as she came to her senses and returned to him.

The reason for this plan was so that God could provide a clear demonstration of how He loves each one of us. In His conversation with Hosea, God told him about His plan to restore the children of Israel who had turned their backs on God and had produced children who also disobeyed God. But it was also in God’s plan to provide a way for His people to return to Him. Redemption and restoration are the key points in God’s plan, because His love for us is unconditional. No matter what we have done, God keeps the door open for us to come back to our senses. He loves us so much that He got off His own throne, in the person of His Son, to save us himself. I love this story because it’s a reminder of the kind of love we will never find on this earth, no matter how hard we may search. No one’s love is more pure, more long-suffering, more constant than the Lord’s. Because He loves us, there is no reason to fear what comes our way. His plan is complete and is always developed in the spirit of love.

In reading about Hosea, I discovered something else about how excellent God’s plan is. By placing Hosea in this difficult situation, God was also positioning his servant to be an effective messenger whose personal testimony would lead the wayward people back to the Father. Hosea’s marriage and the grace he extended to his unfaithful wife gave an ocular demonstration of what God would do for His people if they would turn away from their sins. When God calls us to lead other people, He always places us in a storm first as a training ground for the greater task He has for us to accomplish. This training ground enables us to speak from what we know instead of what we have only heard. We can’t be an effective witness to God’s miraculous works, mercy, power or love if we haven’t experienced those things personally. However, the Lord never puts more on us than we can handle and he stays with us through the storm. This is why we shouldn’t become frantic when we encounter problems. When God called Hosea into service, he wasn’t afraid or ashamed to marry the woman God chose for him. His obedience and trust opened the door for God to comfort and shield him from any pain that would come, and it ultimately prepared him to complete the work. So in the end, Hosea found that the pain he had to endure was worth it, because it led to a closer walk with God and the redemption of an entire nation.

Passage:

And although you at one time were estranged and alienated from Him and were of hostile attitude of mind in your wicked activities, Yet now has  [Christ, the Messiah] reconciled [you to God] in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His [the Father’s] presence. Colossians 1:21-22 [AMP]