Friday, June 26, 2009

Prostitution

Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame.
Jeremiah 3:3

As I read through Isaiah & Jeremiah, I cannot help but notice how many times God compares the Israelites to prostitutes. As a people they literally gave themselves to idols, pride, and sin. Instead of being faithful to God - they chose a path of prostitution. In many ways, it seems like nothing can be so degrading as prostitution in this world. Whether it is chosen or forced upon someone, it is humiliating, degrading, and wrong. Yet how often do I choose the same route as the Israelites in my relationship with God? How often am I no more then a whore to sin? I give myself over to it in a shameful and disgraceful way, not only humiliating myself but in some ways the God I claim to have a relationship with. In reality, why would a spouse stay with their spouse if that spouse willingly chose to have sex with as many different people as possible? It sounds crude - but that is how God choose to describe it when we choose sin (often times repeatedly & without shame) over Him. So what do you do when you are the prostitute? How do you escape that life - when its all you have ever known? How do you heal your heart, reclaim your mind, improve your actions - when prostitution comes so easily? How deep is the well of God's love despite our prostitution? I feel like these are the questions that God calls us to grapple with. For it is the desire to get out of prostitution that is the first step towards reclaiming a healthy relationship with God. Until then - we remain whores to the sinful passions of our every day lives.

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