Our Heart Defends What We Want, But At What Price?

In I Samuel 8 when Israel gathered together and went to Samuel and ask for a King to rule over them like other nations.  Here they have a special place among the nations in that they have the one true and living God as their King, and they want to blend in with the rest of the world by rejecting God and having a human king?  Wow!  To reject the living God to fit in with other nations?  The first thing Samuel does is prays and seeks God on this.  In I Samuel 8:7 God answers Samuels prayer, And the Lord said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.  According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to the day with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods so they are doing to you also.  Now therefore, heed their voice.   However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them." How many times have we wanted so badly to blend in with the world that we have just let our hearts rule us and justify whatever it is we want.

Samuel goes back to the people and tells them all that God says the King will demand.  It ends with verse 18  "And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.  Verse 19 Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel' and they said "No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

God's response was to give them a King.  How many times have we done this?  It never ends well, and we know from God's Holy Spirit and His word as much as we try to smother the voice that warns us, deep down we hear it.  What can help us turn the tide and choose God over our deceitful hearts?  For me and my journey in life it has been knowing God's heart towards me that has made the difference. Knowing my life is not chance, but God has a clear plan for me every single day of my life.  He is the giver of all good things.  And the most amazing thing to me is that we are the living temple of the Holy Spirit, our teacher, our guide in life.  Choosing sin quenches the Holy Spirit like water to a fire.  We can also grieve the Holy Spirit as well, which I never thought about when I was younger.  I thought God will be angry but he will forgive me. I thought I could say I'm sorry but not turn completely from my sin.   But there is something more when we hurt someone deeply that we profess to love.  When I think of His goodness towards me, how can I do it?  How can I choose something I think I need to fit in (love, money, fill in the blank) over the one who loves me the most.  Satan is always whispering God is holding out on you.  You would feel so much better if you just had your own way....and it may be true for a short time.

 The fire we feed the most will always win out.  If we feed the fire of our wants it can reach a point of consuming us. If we discipline ourselves to feed our spirit with what God gives us, we can overcome.  After all we do have free will. God has told us to put on our armor of God and our only weapon is His Word.  Are we spending time in it to see what the Holy Spirit reveals to us or do we think the sermon we heard is enough. The belt of truth, not truth muddled in justifications.  The breastplate of righteousness, do we even care to do right? And then we really wonder what has gone wrong, why we have not strength to stand against what we know is not good for us?   Just like in the verses of Samuel when the Israelist choose a King over God, when I choose what I think I need to fit in over what I know is right I am rejecting God himself.  When it's stated like that it makes it so much easier to discipline myself and choose the one who loves me the most, the one who only wants the very best for me, God.

God is in all the Details of Our Lives

I want to start out with my favorite verse Acts 17: 24-28  God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us: for in Him we live and move and have our being,

When I read this verse for the first time I was amazed that for one I had never remembered reading it and secondly that life is not random!  I was placed in this time and place by God's design.  So I could find Him, this placement of time and family, friends, all must put a need in my heart for God at some point in my life....well for me many times!  And to know He is not far, from not just me in this life but each one of us!  That is a very loving, faithful God we have that waits for us to seek Him, to find Him, to want to know Him.