Sometimes the things God calls His kids to do are tough and will be filled with heartbreak. He told Hosea to marry a prostitute because God was using Hosea's life as a living story to speak through to His chosen people.
God still does this. He still speaks through His children's lives. Maybe He's speaking so the world hears and sees. Maybe He's speaking through your life so your neighbors see, others Believers see or maybe just a passing stranger. We have no idea how He's using our lives often. We don't have to know.
You know what, He can even use us when we have bad attitudes. Think of Jonah. He didn't want to go to Ninevah. He finally went and did what God told him too. He told them doom and destruction were coming, but he sure didn't do it with a humble heart and with love. God still was able to use his pathetic effort. The whole city repented and turned to God.
Maybe that was just a tangent but it works.
One more thing from the first chapter of Hosea: verse seven is great. It says:
"But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horseman." Hosea 1:7
When we allow God to deliver us rather than take matters into our own hands, He will do it in a very unexpected way. He won't deliver us in the way we think He will or should. He is so much more creative than we can even fathom.
I hope you don't mind but I want to share a quick illustration from my own life here. Money has always been an issue in my adult life. I want to handle it myself -- and not money exactly but providence, how things will be provided for. In years past I've tried to figure it out on my own and messed things up royally. Because of these mess-ups I'm still digging myself out of a hole. But God has freed me from worrrying about finances. He truly provides even when things looks terrible. He has shown me this in such incredible miraculous ways.
BUT, the flesh will quickly take over again if we allow it too. As long as we are still alive in these temporary bodies we have to monitor our attitudes and make sure we are trusting in God and not ourselves.
Out of the blue I get a call from someone. She asks me to write a book for her. It is totally a God thing! I've prayed about being a ghost. From what I've read there are thousands of ghosts out there who make good livings. But I can't write just anything. So I let it be. This opportunity came up and it is straight from God. For my first ghost assignment I am getting paid well overall. With my contract with my client I get paid three times. The fee is split between the payments. I got paid the first third with the signing of the contract. About halfway through I'll get the second third. And when it is complete I'll get the last payment.
Well, my flesh got into this deal lately. I am scheming -- thinking if I work really hard I can get paid quicker. I want to do a fantastic job so I began pushing myself to do volumes of work very quickly. Cause I was thinking -- okay I can use that money to pay this, do this, pay this mortgage payment, etc. This isn't from GOD!!!! I was trying to figure it out once again.
My client saved me from this -- showed me what I was doing. She said, "Jane, I'm in no hurry. Take time. Pray, think. It will come."
That stopped me quick. It shined the light on that nasty flesh that was trying to take over. God is in control. I don't have to fret or scheme when it comes to finances. I am not the provider. He is. If I get more ghost jobs He will bring them. That is how He works with me and finances.
Finances might not be the area you need to work on, guard against. Whatever you've dealt with a lot probably is an area that needs to be watched by you. God will be in charge of that area. Just don't take it back. Let Him work.