Devotion

  I just read a book. That in itself is no earth shattering news, as I read a lot of books. However, this book was one of those that grabbed me and just about beat me over the head with a message. The book is a romance novel, and I don't normally read romance unless it is romantic suspense, and someone is trying to murder someone in it..... but this book sounded good, and I had the chance to review it, so I requested it.

 The plot is this:

Christian Music agent Kellen Rossiter has everything he ever wanted: A-list clients from coast to coast, a loving wife who honors and respects him, and a faith life that’s never wavered—until now. Juliet Rossiter has the perfect life: a rewarding schedule serving the underprivileged, a husband who loves her as Christ loved the church, and a blessed future as a mother—at least that's what she thinks. For Better or Worse But what happens when their rock-solid marriage begins to crumble under the weight of an unexpected and powerful temptation? How does love survive when its foundation is shaken? When human frailty and the allure of sin deal a harsh blow to their relationship, it will take more than love to mend the shattered trust and heartbreak. It will take a lifetime of devotion.

   The dates are coming up when I need to post a review of the book, and since the snow kept me in today, I started reading it, and kept reading it. The story is fictional, but is a story that happens all of the time. A couple starts drifting away from each other, a beautiful woman or man comes into the picture, and someone breaks their marriage vows. This isn't the book review, but it really is a great book.

 The guy in the book didn't mess up out of the blue. He started skipping church, not spending time in prayer and Bible reading, and when temptation hit, he was an easy mark. Although the story is about a couple working through infidelity to forgiveness, devotion, and restoration of their marriage, there is also another them in the book that stuck out to me: devotion to God.

  The author may have intentionally written the book that way, but the story seemed to me a picture of the Christian and God, or God and me to be more exact. I found myself thinking about my relationship with God as I read the book, and the question kept coming to my mind "Am I truly devoted to God?"

  Today is Superbowl Sunday. I'm not watching it, nor having a Superbowl party. I hate the sport, don't understand it, and don't understand how people can be so excited about watching a game that has teams they don't normally follow. Besides, I don't think that is the best way to keep the Sabbath holy, but that is beside the point..... obviously, people who are watching the game today, in spite of the fact they don't follow either team, are very devoted to the sport. They will set everything aside this evening so they can watch a bunch of guys throw a weird shaped ball and chase each other and knock each other down. Some will skip church to watch. Some will skip work to watch. Many will set aside their families so they can watch. They are devoted to the sport called football. Today, nothing else matters.

  And yet, too many of us, myself included, have a hard time fitting God into our day and life. We can't set much of anything aside for Him. Oh, we go to church on Sunday and maybe Sunday evening if our church has evening services.

  We flirt with the world and temptations. We have God as our heavenly Father, and an audience with Him any time of the day and night, yet we constantly fill our time and life with things of the world that drain us and cause our love for God to wane. We cheat on Him constantly by getting too close to the world and living too close to the edge where we could fall off into giving into temptation and sin.

 In the book, the wife had a hard time forgiving her husband for his act of infidelity..... God isn't like that. He instantly forgives, and doesn't hold back forgiveness until He feels better about it or feels He can trust us again, It is the best relationship we can ever have in this life, and too many of us are careless and don't work at our part enough. God always does  His part. Sadly, we don't always.

  Life has dealt me a deck that has made me a bachelor for life. I'll never vow to love and cherish a woman at the front of a church with family looking on. That isn't always an easy thing to handle, but a relationship with God is so much better than any love we have here. Even between a husband and wife.

  And yet I have messed that up so many times. I've cheated on God and on my time with Him. I have served Him with one eye looking longingly at what I know I shouldn't want and cannot have if I am to truly serve Him. I have made vows, and then broken them. Yet He always forgives. He willingly forgives.

  Hosea is a story of a prophet God commanded to marry a prostitute. She of course was not faithful to Hosea and he had to go buy her back after her life of sin put her on the auction block. It was to be a picture of God and Israel, but it is a picture of all who wander from God and are unfaithful. I want to be faithful and devoted. It is great for a couple to be devoted and faithful to each other, and that is how it should be. It is far greater and more important to be faithful and devoted to God, the lover of our soul, the lover who is always loves, forgives, and is faithful no matter how unfaithful we may be.