YET THEY HAVE SPOKEN LIES AGAINST ME

 
EVENING DEVOTION

OCTOBER 8

 

Hosea 7:13

…yet they have spoken lies against me.

 
Who has?
 
The people whom he has redeemed.
 
Awful as the sin is, it is so common, that we may rather ask, Who has not?
 
Spoken lies against God!
 
Yes.
 
When you said that he was unwilling to receive you, because you were such a wicked sinner.
 
When you said that you should perish, though, you were clinging to the cross, trusting in his grace, and seeking his mercy.
 
When you exclaimed, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.”
 
When you said that he would allow you to want, leave you in distress, or turn a deaf ear to your prayer in the time of trouble.
 
But you know that time would fail to enumerate the instances in which you have spoken lies against God.
 
Sometimes plainly, and at other times more obscurely, you have said, he does not mean what he says.
 
He will not perform his promise.
 
My friend, beware, your unbelief gives God the lie, your doubts reflect on his veracity; he speaks the truth, and only the truth.
 
“Why then do you do not believe him?”
 
“He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record which God gave of his Son.”
 

I too have lied against my God,

With shame and sorrow I confess;

Pardon me sin through Jesu’s blood,

And give me sanctifying grace.

 
James Smith