Partial is not complete

1 Samuel 15:22-23

But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

Saul in trouble. He really did not follow the Lord in this instance. Prior to these verses, he was instructed by Samuel to absolutely destroy the Amalekites. Destroy everything, leave nothing alive behind. Which in a way is a harsh command. God wanted them totally destroyed and that is what Saul did. Well, mostly did. He took a prisoner and he kept the good cattle and was going to use it as a "sacrifice" to the Lord. Though he may have had good intentions to do that, it was not the instructions. However he justified in his head that it was okay to bring back the cattle and bring back a prisoner. A closer look at this and the issue may not have been that Saul did all this, the issue seems to be that Saul's heart was not in the right place. In prior chapters this was a common occurrence, Saul in 1 Samuel 13 breaks protocol and offers sacrifices with out the priest Samuel. In chapter 14 he issues this decree only to make exceptions for his son. There is a pattern of not following the Lord. It appears that Saul's heart is not first committed to God. Later on when Samuel tasked to find Saul's replacement he is instructed by God to not look at the outside when selecting a king, God looks at the heart (1 Sam 16:7). Saul's heart was not in the right place. Saul's order of importance in his heart was not God first.

Now as I look at this often times I am conflicted with what is first in my life. And I have to admit that often times it is not so much that the things that I want to see done are bad, they are just not completely in line with what God wants done. God wants your heart to be 100% for Him, that is all that he wants. It means sometimes that we may have to do things that do not make sense, or take on challenges we don't want to do. The Lord though wants us to give our whole heart to Him. That may look different in many ways, but what is certain is that if our heart is not fully committed to Him, then we cannot experience the full life He has for us. It didn't happen for Saul so we can't expect that for us.

Lord sometimes I know I have split heart, now Lord I want to give it all back to you. Help me with that and help me do what is needed to accomplish that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living with the opportunity

Matthew 25:14-15 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.” This passage has been such a difficult thing to figure out. It has been something that I have been dealing with and something that I have been longing to understand. Many people see that as that God gives you talents and you got to take your talents and live for God. But what are talents. It has been explained talent to be either your real talents, or money, or something God gives you. However, there is a distinction between talent and ability here. After reading this commentary ( http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/matthew/living-dangerously) it seems that things make more sense here. Talent, the way we know talent, according to this passage is ability, and talent as referred to in this setting is opportunity. The property owne
Read more

When God ask you to do something crazy...

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dibaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. -Hosea 1:2-3 Now this is kind of a crazy assignment. It’s not like he says go and build a church, or go preach to the people, or fast for the nation. No, God told him to go take a WHORE for a wife. It doesn’t even sound Biblical. But that is what you see, God giving a very different task. Hosea’s first assignment, marry a whore. God asked Hosea to do something crazy. But what you see here is that Hosea, he DOES IT!. Without question, he just does it, he is very obedient to God. Though it’s sort of a strange situation, I am encouraged by Hosea’s obedience. Now, I don’t know about you, if one of the first big assignments God gives me is to go out and marry a whore, not sure how I would take that.
Read more

He Provides Our REAL Needs

  Acts 3:6-8 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. The beggar was asking for gold and silver, he was asking for things that he thought would satisfy him. But in reality it wasn’t what he really needed.  God knew that his real needs differed from what he was begging for.  In those times, if you were not capable of work, or able to walk, you were just cast away to the side. Daily he was put there by someone, to just beg all day long. He did this his whole life. This is how he was born, he was regulated to fend for himself by asking for money daily.  It made sense, money equaled ability to buy food and then you are able to eat. The beggar knew his place in society  because of
Read more