Hard Fall, Hard Faith 

Based on Hosea 11-14

If you feel like there's no return to God...if you feel like you've never even had a real connection/relationship with God, there is a way back. There is a way forward. There is a way that you can escape the empty rut...when you fall hard, have hard faith! Get back up & keep pressing on!

Remember how easy it was to trust and believe as a child? We were totally ok with not knowing how to do everything...

"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." Hosea 11:1.

Like a child's first bike ride without training wheels...you think you're on your own, but someone was always behind ya, just in case...

"I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them." Hosea 11:3.

When we fall off the bike, life isn't over...but we usually don't want to get up alone. We need a shoulder to cry on, at least for a little while...and that's Who God has been, and wants to be, especially when we are old enough to make bigger mistakes than falling off our bikes...

"O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help." Hosea 13:9.

We can't stop trusting God after the first hard fall. We can't have an "I got this alone" mentality, because we don't...even if the bumps & bruises don't bother us anymore, the emotional trauma, emptiness & baggage will catch up to us...especially when we make choices like who to be friends with. Our careers. And so much in between...it's so easy to cause our own destruction without God...

But like that parent, who remembers all the way back to that first bike ride, that first car accident, or the first arrest...and so much in between...our God is the same. Our God is more than a parent to a prodigal. He loves us more than any person ever could, and He is waiting...

"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him." Hosea 14:4.

We can't lose faith when we gain intelligence. Faith is stronger than anything we know...and knowing God is more comforting than anything else...especially after a hard fall.