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It’s easy to say: “I believe the Bible”, yet quietly struggle to actually open it every day. Life fills up fast: work, family time, church responsibilities, readings for class, emails, future plans. None of those things are sinful, but they can slowly crowd out the steady, daily habit of sitting to read God’s Word. Last Sunday, I was reminded by Pastor Danny of the simple advice in the sermon, “read the Bible every day.” It was simple, but a good reminder.

The illustration about starting Bible reading in the wrong place (Ezekiel) made me smile, but it also exposed something deeper. If Scripture is truly, “breathed out by God”, then we should read it because it’s “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). That’s why the Old Testament, even Hosea, even the difficult parts, was written “for our instruction” (Romans 15:4). That means my neglect is not a scheduling issue, it is a priority issue.

Hosea show us that God’s people can drift slowly, stubbornly, into unfaithfulness. Israel did not wake up one morning and decide to abandon God. They drifted. They loved other things. They feared other things. They obeyed other things. And I see how easily my own heart can do the same.

The warnings of Israel are not there to shame me but to shepherd me. Hebrews 12 reminds me that the Lord disciplines those He loves. That is not harshness, that is covenant mercy. I want to learn from Israel’s failure rather than repeat it. I want to be the kind of man who knows God’s Word well enough to recognize my idols before they harden into habits.

So this is not merely about “understanding Hosea correctly.” It is about being corrected by it. It is about letting Scripture expose where my love, fear, service, and obedience have drifted. And if I am honest, I need that daily. Not just for my family, not just for ministry, but for my own wandering heart.