praying through hosea 2

my confession:

5Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
⁶ Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. 
⁷ She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘I will go back to my husband as at first,
for then I was better off than now.’
⁸ She has not acknowledged that I was the one 
   who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, 
who lavished on her the silver and gold— 
   which they used for Baal.

my request and thanksgiving:

¹⁶ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
“you will call me ‘my husband’; 
   you will no longer call me ‘my master.’ 
¹⁷ I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked.
¹⁸ In that day I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the creatures that move along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
¹⁹ I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
²⁰ I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.