“I will hedge up your way with thorns”

Hosea 2:6

Hedge us in to You Lord

When God cursed the ground for sin

He promised that it would bring forth thorns

Clarify to us what’s cursed & what’s blessed

Thorns, represent difficulty & bad result

Reveal the thorns to us & their cause

But, God is merciful in thorny consequences

Pour Your mercy on us, in us & around us

The “thorns” of scratch, pierce & scar

Reveal what pierces us with many sorrows

It’s the pain that makes us hate the sin that causes the thorns

Make every pain meaningful

We cry out

We want the thorns removed

But when we go our way

When we reject Your way

We need to be hedged in

When we break down Your fences

We can really wander off farther & farther

We stay or we think we’re out of
sight & out of mind.

But God You promise

I will hedge up your way with thorns

I will make a wall to keep you from finding
your destructive paths

In mercy God send us difficulties

Sharp stuff that scratches

Nasty stuff that pierces us

Icky stuff that pains us

Make others pray specifically for a hedge
of thorns to surround our wrong paths

Bring the Things

The Cutting & binding things

Things that will stop us in our tracks

Things that prevent us from going
any farther into oblivion

We cry out for our wounds to be healed
and our pains relieved

We’re up against the thorn-filled hedges
of You, God in our lives.

In Hosea the wanderer kept pushing away

They said “we will follow our lovers.”

God eventually responds

“I will hedge up your way with thorns.”

Maybe someone is praying non-stop
that God won’t give up on us.

Please Lord Jesus!
Never never never give up on us.

Keep knocking on our hearts door.
Knock louder & louder & louder

If it takes pain-filled difficulties to frustrate our sin filled desires & directions, then bring them.

Don’t let us redefine this plague of sin!

God. Hedged up our way with thorns.

Pierce deep into our hearts & minds.

Make the hedge impossible to break down.

Whatever it takes Lord. Whatever it takes.

If You have to expose us naked, do it.

If You have to turn our skin into dried-out leather, do it.

If You have to make our body into a badlands landscape, do it.

If You have to make us a rack of bones in the desert, do it.

Make us face it!

“If we’ve been born in a whorehouse,
make us face it.

If our mother’s been a whore, make us
face it.

If we’re bastard children make us face it.

When we say, ‘we’re off to see our lovers!

They’ll wine & dine us,

They’ll dress & caress us,

They’ll perfume & adorn us!’

Then dump us in a field of thorns & thistles

Yes, push us into the dead-end alley we’re on

When we go on the hunt for our lovers
don’t let us find any

Destroy all that’s a waste to us

Make us totally helpless

Make all the whoring around a dumping grounds for garbage

Make all the promiscuity a pit of thorns

Hosea 2 paraphrased

Never give up on us!
Never give up!
Keep knocking louder!

You have hedged us & shut us in–behind and before & You have laid Your hand on us. Psalms 139:5