Samuel Rebukes Saul

Saul makes an understandable mistake – in his fear, he offers a sacrifice to the Lord. But this was not his role to play – God had appointed Samuel for this purpose. Saul, in his fear, disobeyed God and showed a lack of faith. All throughout Saul’s story, God had been faithfully acting. But when things took longer than expected, Saul tried to take the story back into his own hands – leading to disastrous results. What does this story teach you about faith, and following the calling of God? 

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REFLECTION

Submit, Wait, Then Move Forward

By Judy Webb

“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.” (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

Did you ever try to take control of a situation, ripping it right out of God’s hands? You turned it over to Him, surrendered your will to His, and then fear took over. I think this is called ‘getting ahead of God’. It never works. God reminds me of this every time I hear Him instructing me to Trust and Obey.

Saul should have learned this too. Samuel worked closely with his protegee, instructing, and guiding him as the first King. Which also, by the way, was the people of Israel getting ahead of God. They chose not to trust and obey. They insisted on having a king to rule them and did not trust God’s way was best.

Samuel had told Saul to wait for 7 days, when he would join Saul at Gilgal. (1 Samuel 10:8) They would then worship and seek God’s direction together. But Saul doubted Samuel would arrive on time, so he took matters into his own hands.

Sound familiar? How many times have we done the same thing? We knew God wanted us to pray first, to wait on His direction, but instead we pushed on ahead of God. We may have prayed, but then we acted without listening or waiting for His answer. I confess I often do this because I know what I want, and I am afraid that God might not agree.

Thankfully, I have grown in my faith and as a more mature believer, I recognize   that God’s will for me is best. And I am better off when I submit my will for His. I could have saved myself a lot of hardship had I believed this from the start. How about you? Is it time to give up control of that thing that is eating you up? It is time to get ready to hand it over to God and wait for Him to act. He will and you can count on it.

UALC’S CAMPAIGN OF PRAYER - FRIDAY

FAITH - Pray for faith instead of fear, that many would come to faith in Jesus and that we would all trust God more deeply during this time.