Today’s reading I Samuel 18-20

I Samuel 18:15 Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him.

David had only tried to do right. He had killed the giant, Goliath. He had won victories over Israel’s enemies. Saul realized that David was winning the hearts of the people of Israel. He also knew that God was through with him. He knew that God had chosen someone to take his place.

He tried to make David’s life miserable. He tried to get him killed and even tried to personally kill him twice. David continued to behave himself wisely and correctly no matter what was happening to him.

The more David did right in spite of the poor treatment the more afraid Saul became. Saul wanted David to react incorrectly. He didn’t.

Do you realize that God is at work in your life? I often forget that. I get caught up in daily living. I think that life is just moving along and I divorce it from the spiritual world. That is a mistake. I think you may do that also, even more than you are willing to admit.

What seems like really bad stuff is God forming David’s character and making him into the man he will need to be. It is easy to see that and understand it when you can read the entire story and quickly. It is easy to accept when you can see the beginning, the problems, and then the end that it leads to. Remember God can see all of that in your life.

He knows what He is doing in your life. Pray and ask Him to help you with your unbelief and then trust Him all that you can!

Today’s reading I Samuel 16-17

I Samuel 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

Goliath is mocking David. He can’t believe that the champion that Israel has sent out is such a young man with no experience. He can’t believe the weapon that David brings to the battle.

David quickly reminds him that he has not come with a weapon but in the name of His God. He has come in the name of the Lord God of Israel. It wasn’t the sling and stone that would win the battle. It was God working in and through His man.

Satan will always appear to have more weapons on his side. It always appear that God and His work are at a great lack but they are not! As long as God is at work in your life you really have more weapons than the enemy.

David knew that. David knew that when he stepped out to fight that his only power and resource were the work that God was doing in his life.

You can step out to do the work of God in the same way. You can step out knowing that it isn’t about you, your power, your ability, your knowledge or your experience but rather about the great God that you serve.

We may have fewer weapons but we have far greater power!

Today’s reading I Samuel 13-15

I Samuel 15:20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

Saul has disobeyed God. Actually he did most of what he was told to do. When Samuel calls his hand his answer is, I did obey. I have done what I was told to do. I went where I was told to go. I have destroyed the enemy.

Saul conveniently forgot that he had not killed Agag and that he had saved the best of the animals. He had his reasons but it isn’t what God had told him to do.

That is typically what we do. We obey as far as we agree with what God says. We do what we think it is good and right. We stop short of out right, complete obedience. Complete obedience might just be ridiculous.

Could it be that this verse will remind us of what He wants us to do? Could it remind us of our almost obedience?

Today’s reading I Samuel 9-12

I Samuel 12:21 And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.

When things go wrong we often want to turn aside from following the Lord. Don’t forget that He rescued us from sin and will keep us. When things go wrong we want to blame God. We want to think that God hasn’t cared for us and met our needs like He promised.

Here Saul gives us good advice. The other things that you would follow after are vain, empty, fake, and have no profit. They will not get you out of your problems. The Lord and obeying Him is our only answer. We must trust Him.

In the middle of all that is going wrong in your life realize that He loves you. He has only thoughts of peace for you. Remember that we often bring the bad things on ourselves. Of course, we do not want to admit or see that. We think only of ourselves and all that we have done.

We blame God. We turn to empty things which will only compound our sorrow. So today if you are going through rough times I challenge you to trust God. I challenge you hold on and keep plowing ahead until God makes things clear again.

Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking that the world has the answer for you!

Today’s reading I Samuel 5-8

I Samuel 8:5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

A dad’s dream when his children are born is that they will follow the Lord Jesus and have good testimonies of faith. I can only imagine what Samuel must have felt in this verse. He had seen the failure of Eli’s children. He had hoped and prayed for better from his own.

I doubt that he ever expected to have his children become so corrupt.The people didn’t want them in the ministry. They had failed:

I Samuel 8:3 And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

Now Samuel is hurt because his children have rebelled against God and given the ministry a bad name. When we get old we want our children to carry on and do even better than we have done.

So today we need to take seriously the example we are giving our children. We need to pray for our children. We need to train them the best we can for the Lord Jesus. We need to realize that we can never relax. Raising Godly children is a lifetime of work.

Even if your children have messed up do not give up but keep loving them, leave the doors open for them to come back, pray for them, and wait on God to work.