It hurts

Have you ever had something lanced? Or completely cut out? It hurts.

I once had MRSA. It’s a dangerous infection. It settles into a spot on the body and makes itself at home. Most antibiotics can’t touch it. It spreads quickly and is highly contagious. It can be deadly.

Kind of like sin. It likes to make itself at home in us. And once it is settled it spreads quickly to other areas of our life, and even the lives of those around us.

Like MRSA, the only way to ensure it is gone is to cut it out. I remember the doctor telling me they had to remove the core, or the root of the infection to ensure it didn’t come back. If they left the core there it could return and wreak havoc on my body again at any time. Having that thing cut out was incredibly painful. Even the shot to numb the area hurt more than it normally would have, because the area was already inflamed and hurting. But had I left it there to avoid further pain it would have spread and eventually would have killed me.

Hosea 6 presents to us a call to repentance. Starting at verse one it says:

Come let us return to the Lord, for He has torn us, and He will heal us. He has wounded us, and He will bind up our wounds.

Hosea 6:1

That may seem strange, and even wrong. Why would God wound us? Why would he ever want to tear us? Especially if He is just going to heal us anyway.

Because if He leaves the infection of sin in there it will kill us. Like the hand of a skillful surgeon He cuts us open and removes the infection that threatens to separate us from Him for eternity. Does it hurt? Yes. But only for a moment in comparison to what we would feel for eternity if He didn’t do it.

The cut is to save your life. Lay yourself down on the surgery table and let yourself be healed. Choose to remove the sin from your life and to be made new.

Oh, and the scars the surgery leaves? Those are reminders of what you have overcome.

Photo cred: Daria Shevtsova