Scripture: 1 Samuel 12-13
Reading: Abandonment to Divine Providence Book I Chapter II Section III
Seeing all that God wanted to do in the life of Israel as we look back throught history sometimes I so arrogantly thought when preparing my teaching on texts such as these that I would never lose sight of the Lord and I would obey Him if I saw what they saw. Reality is I am no different – the Lord lays out simple commands and I simply don’t always follow them. Like Saul and the burnt offering, he justified it and thought he was doing the right thing, but Samuel rebuked him veheminately.
Why is it that so much promise awaits us if we simply would believe God and just do as He directs and we don’t do it, blessing doesn’t come and we are left to wonder, “What gives?” If only we / I would learn to just simply trust God and let Him call the shots. The flesh doesn’t go down so easily and puts up a whale of a fight. Instead of obeying what God said as He said we somehow manage to become convinced that we can alter or adapt what God has said to the circumstance in front of us to fit our will and not His. When we look at Sauls case we find that his kingdom would have been established forever, now from this point foward he will just have go about living his life as king. If he would have accepted and submitted to God’s pronounced I think Saul would have had a good finish, but in his continued instance on self-will through the rest of his life made his finish nothing more really than a villian and enemy of God.
Though we blow it at times, God in the depths of His love and grace gives many, many more opportunities to lose our self-will and submit to His as He did Saul.
Mighty God, teach us how to look intently for You in each and every moment that is before us. Grow in us a holy fear that we would be quick to yield to Your leading and direction. In desiring to finish well we know that we must fall upon Your love and grace for we are not perfect people but let us not fall to the excuse rather let us go on to perfection growing in faith.
I think of Peter.He denied Jesus after the cross.He was restored and delivered the message at Pentecost.Then God had to get his attention again because of prejudice.You would think he would get it .But Paul had to rebuke him.We forget and choose the world so easily.I pray that we would choose God and always remember.
Craig
Hi Craig! Excellent example in Peter as well and inspite of all of that he was still called a pillar, by Paul no less. I find great encouragement in that fact that we all have to grow thru our worldliness and/of faithlessness and it is the power of the Holy Spirit in a submitted will that allows us to be teachable. To what depths God is desiring to use us we will never fully know, but you are right it the choice that we have to make to chose God over self even if in our own reason we are legally correct with what we understand with Peter calling the gentiles unclean was legally correct, but spiritually wrong – hence the problem with being led by reason.
Thanks for posting that.