Hosea 14:8

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. 

Aiming further left to combat a slice is not a swing change. A swing change involves mechanically altering one’s swinging motion in order to alter the angles of attack conducive to a repeatable and more consistent contact with the golf ball. We try and convince ourselves changing our grip or opening and closing our feet will result in the magical formula for golf perfection. A faulty swing is just that – a bad swing. The positioning of the stable parts of our body have little do with our contact.

Israel in Chapter 2 of Hosea was deep into the worship of idols and depended upon them for comfort, nourishment, and guidance. If the homegrown idols were insufficient, she would have them brought in from Assyria, Moab, or Egypt. The change exhibited was a dramatic one. God speaks and declares it was He who provided the blessings and protection. The one true God towers over any of the idols and only through Him “true fruit” originates.

When we experience salvation, our thought processes and feelings of self-dependence are changed from within. It is by His grace alone that we are changed. We are a new creatures in Christ. The “old man” has passed away and a new birth has occurred. It isn’t just simply a changed behavior which will forever alter our life and provides eternal salvation. Changes without Christ just as easily revert back to the old way of secular living. Unlike in golf when our slight pull becomes an uncontrollable hook a week after a swing change, salvation is an everlasting change because it originates from within the soul. Past habits and ways of thinking no longer provide us the comfort and temporal fulfillment as once before. Make a point this week to tell someone about how the salvation changed you. We cannot minimize the impact of our personal testimony which tells others about our lost desires and a found Savior.