Today’s Reading, 1 Samuel 4-8
Focal Scripture: 1 Samuel 8:7 “But the Lord told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king.”
Sometimes the Lord will give you exactly what you desire and that is not always a positive thing to happen in one’s life. I can look back on my life and think of a few instances where the Lord gave me my requests. When he did, it revealed major sin and misunderstanding in my life. You see God allowed certain situations to happen, because he knew I would not learn the lessons I needed by him just saying no to my prayers. I had to learn the hard way and when I did learn, it was lessons I never forgot.
In today’s reading we see this truth play out with the nation of Israel. The time of the judges was coming to an end. The next people in line were not going to be good leaders. The people asked for a King and God gave them exactly what they wanted. The prophet was concerned about this but God made it clear that the nation was not rejecting his words as a prophet. They were rejecting God, as their rightful king.
Sometimes I think we need to be more careful in our prayer life. We ask for things that clearly violate the Lords desires for our life. It could be a job, money, relationships, or even which direction we should go in our life. Our prayers should align with the Lord and his desires. However, if the Lord gives us what we ask for, we must ask the difficult question of ourselves. Are we picking our request above God? In other words are we picking a man made king over the one true king?
I am not sure about you but I never want it to be said about me that I rejected the Lord. I want him to be the only king I have in my life. To make sure of that, I have to know his will and make sure I follow it on a daily basis. My desire to be like everyone else has to become non existent. Remember what started this problem for Israel, is their desire to have a king like other nations. They were playing the comparison game and it cost them dearly.
My challenge to you and myself is to make sure our desire is always to make God our king. He rules and reigns and we should never desire to be like other people or nations. We are called to be different and that is what Israel failed to realize in this moment.
God is king and is powerful above all. This must be our daily prayer.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading 1 Samuel 9-12
