Superficiality

The call to return to the Lord has been given but it didn’t last.

I knew a man who would knock on my door or phone me every 3 months for confession over the same sin. It went on for 10 years until the sin like a cancer consumed him and took him into exile.

“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth—then my judgments go forth like the sun.” (Hosea 6 v 4-5)

Like the man I knew, Hosea’s generation walked with God only for a while, it did not last.

Loyalty to God was fleeting, like a morning mist that disappears when the sun comes on it.

They were superficial with no substance to their worship of God.

Pastors tell me that since the pandemic their Church has changed. People are not attending as regularly as they used to. It is not the shift-work that is causing them the problem but lifestyle choice. They may attend alternate weeks and the other time they are pursuing leisure moments.

If Church attendance is down is their prayer life up? Are they spending more time on their faces before God? If so, then there is perhaps not a problem. I suspect that not only is their attendance down but their prayer life also.

• Superficiality limits the possible opportunities with God – what can I do with you?
• Superficiality talks more and makes decisions less, it is all promise and declaration – the mist.
• Superficiality is always boasting (on social media), their words become more important than the prophetic words – I cut you in pieces with my prophets.
• Superficiality breeds entitlement, they deserve some idolatry, they have earned this, but they will be judged – ‘like the sun’ the light on their darkness.