Hosea 3

We discussed Hosea 3 (all 5 verses of it), and discovered that God definitely gives and He takes away. But, He does so with loving intentions of drawing our dependence back to Him. We have to learn to let things go and learn to depend on God. Gomer had to give up depending on her body and sex to get what she wanted and turn to God for understanding. How many times has this happened in our lives? It seems like it happens over and over again (you'd think I'd learn) - but it continues to happen, and hopefully I learn to let go and let God with less time and trouble than I did the time before. If only I could have the faith and obedience that Hosea had. I admire how much strength and faith he had in order to follow through with the seemingly crazy things that God asked of him. Strong unwaivering faith and dependence on God - that's what it boils down to...

Hosea 2

Monday night we discussed Hosea 2. In this chapter we see how God plans to punish and rebuke Israel for their immoral and idolatrous lifestyle. We also see how He plans to restore His chosen people. It is amazing to me how God uses people like Hosea and Gomer to illustrate such incredible things. Hosea's selfless obedience to God is astounding. I hope that if and when I am called by God to do things that I find difficult, that I will be able to trust in Him with all my being and follow Him with no thoughts otherwise. After reading this passage, it makes me contemplate my motives for the things that I do. Everything I have is a gift from God, but do I use those things to further my own plans or to glorify Him? Sometimes, I think it is difficult to distinguish whether those are one and the same or whether they differ. I also think about when my relationship with God is most evident... I'm ashamed to say that I am one of those that tends to turn to God and depend on Him when I am lacking much more often than I turn to Him during times of prosperity. Luckily, I can change that, and I know that God does forgive and restore His people. His compassion and grace are His unfaultering gifts to us!

Introduction of Anaya

These are the ladies of ANAYA.

We sharpen one another (even when we want nothing better than to be left totally alone). We laugh together. We share meals together. We pray together. We love one another and we actively get after knowing our Lord and Savior together, both individually and coporately.

Sara, Margarita, & Renatta

Uyen & Marcy

ANAYA

Renatta and I sat down to come up with a name for this blog, so we started toying with the letters of all of our names, trying to come up with something neat and meaningful. We came across the word ANAYA, created using the last letter of each of our first names: sarA, uyeN, renattA, marcY, margaritA. We looked up the meaning of the word - and low and behold - it means "God Answers." Isn't that nuts! Especially after all the stuff that we talked about last night! It's amazing!