Ordinary People Daring to Trust and Extraordinary God
1 Samuel 17:45-47
Trust and Obedience go hand in hand. Trust says "God, I don't understand why but I believe you will work everything out for my good." Without that first step of trust, we cannot obey.
God absolutely demands our obedience. Disobedience is a serious offense with God, because it sets man above God. It is idolatry. It sets man's word above God's word.
We live in a society that claims there are no absolutes. Truth is whatever you (or the media) wants it to be. However, God says to us: "Yes, there are absolutes and you better keep them."
We need to look no further than Saul and Samuel after the battle with the Amalekites. God ordered Saul to destroy the Amalekites, to erase it from the earth. He was ordered to destroy every last trace of this society. Saul had the opportunity to obey, but he didn't. He chose to disobey, by keeping the best of the loot as a "sacrifice." At least that was the excuse he gave when he was confronted by Samuel.
But, Samuel had some words for the disobedient king, which ring true to us today.
1 Samuel 15:22-23 "But Samuel replied, 'What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices of your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than the fat of rams. Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols. So, because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king."
How many times has God asked us to do something for him? How many times have we been prompted by his Holy Spirit to take action, yet we don't act? Our disobedience fills us with guilt, which eats at us, which places a rift in our relationship ( a rift which can be healed through repentance), and our natural reaction is to try and fix it. When we disobey God's commands, we turn around and try to give. We over give our tithe, we over give to charity. We over give of our time. This makes us feel better for a little while, but it will never make up for our disobedience.
Obedience. God makes it absolutely clear, when it comes to his call over our lives, when it comes to Holy Scripture, he wants us to obey. You can never pick and choose which portions of scripture you want to obey and which portions you can ignore. Ignoring scripture is disobedience. I hate to break that to everyone. There is no amount of giving that we can do to make up for our failure to obey God. Fear, pride, arrogance, and selfishness beget disobedience.Trust is just the opposite. When God calls us to do something, even when it seems beyond our skill level, beyond our means, we must trust God. We first trust, then we obey. Trust says, "yes" to God. Our obedience is the action of trust in motion.
Trust and Obedience go hand in hand. Trust says "God, I don't understand why but I believe you will work everything out for my good." Without that first step of trust, we cannot obey.
God absolutely demands our obedience. Disobedience is a serious offense with God, because it sets man above God. It is idolatry. It sets man's word above God's word.
We live in a society that claims there are no absolutes. Truth is whatever you (or the media) wants it to be. However, God says to us: "Yes, there are absolutes and you better keep them."
We need to look no further than Saul and Samuel after the battle with the Amalekites. God ordered Saul to destroy the Amalekites, to erase it from the earth. He was ordered to destroy every last trace of this society. Saul had the opportunity to obey, but he didn't. He chose to disobey, by keeping the best of the loot as a "sacrifice." At least that was the excuse he gave when he was confronted by Samuel.
But, Samuel had some words for the disobedient king, which ring true to us today.
1 Samuel 15:22-23 "But Samuel replied, 'What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices of your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than the fat of rams. Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols. So, because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king."
How many times has God asked us to do something for him? How many times have we been prompted by his Holy Spirit to take action, yet we don't act? Our disobedience fills us with guilt, which eats at us, which places a rift in our relationship ( a rift which can be healed through repentance), and our natural reaction is to try and fix it. When we disobey God's commands, we turn around and try to give. We over give our tithe, we over give to charity. We over give of our time. This makes us feel better for a little while, but it will never make up for our disobedience.
Obedience. God makes it absolutely clear, when it comes to his call over our lives, when it comes to Holy Scripture, he wants us to obey. You can never pick and choose which portions of scripture you want to obey and which portions you can ignore. Ignoring scripture is disobedience. I hate to break that to everyone. There is no amount of giving that we can do to make up for our failure to obey God. Fear, pride, arrogance, and selfishness beget disobedience.Trust is just the opposite. When God calls us to do something, even when it seems beyond our skill level, beyond our means, we must trust God. We first trust, then we obey. Trust says, "yes" to God. Our obedience is the action of trust in motion.
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