In their afflictions people will seek the Lord more than in their prosperity. We are often unrepentant when things go our way.

Hosea 5:15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

In Their Affliction

In their afflictions people will seek the Lord more than in prosperity.  We are often unrepentant when things go our way.  It is hard to get someone to turn inward when everything is going fine outward.  God uses preachers and evangelists to try and expose our sin to our heart and mind. When we do not respond to the gentle wooing of the Holy Ghost with these means, God needs to bring out the bigger hammer.  First he hides himself.  He returns to His place in heaven and leaves us to our own devices of sin and shame.  Sometimes we have to reap a little of what we have sowed.  When affliction starts to happen, hopefully we begin to seek Him early on.  That is often not the case though.  Many need to spend a long time in the far country in order to come to themselves.  Affliction does not need to be around long before we cry, Lord help!  Peter began to sink in the water when he tried his first attempt at walking on water.  He did not hesitate to call on the Lord with a short, heartfelt prayer.

Acknowledge Their Offence

This affliction is supposed to produce repentance.  The first step to repentance is acknowledging your sin.  Until you can clearly see sin in your life and admit it, there is no way to repent of it and turn from it.  Pride is what keeps us from admitting what we really are.  God wants us to deal with specific sins in our life.  When we generalize sin, it is hard to change.  We need to zero in and deal with the becoming sins in our lives that the Lord is dealing with us about.

Seek God’s Face

We will not seek God’s face until we acknowledge our sin.  Once sin is confessed, fellowship is restored and we can talk to God face to face.  Adam hid from God in the garden after he sinned.  When we have been hiding from God for a while, it often takes a while for God to reveal Himself to us again.  He may just hide from us for a while to see if we are truly desiring to get right or if we are just trying to make a show of the flesh.  We need to seek God early.  The longer you are away from God, the longer it will take to find your way back to God.  It gets harder and harder to get back into church the longer you are out.  God uses affliction to help us desire to seek His face.  We need to seek God’s face, not His hand.  We need His fellowship more than physical provision.  In your affliction always seek the face of God early before it is too late.