“And all the people said to Samuel, ‘Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.’ And Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.’”
There are so many lessons to be considered in this passage:
1. Yes, we should recognize and repent of known sin.
2. We shouldn’t use our sin as an excuse to then turn away from God, thinking our sin is too great to be covered by the Cross of Christ.
3. We need to put off all distractions and activities that do not cause us to grow closer to God.
4. God will never forsake us, for His own name’s sake. When God has promised something, He delivers it despite our sin and lack of devotion to Him.
5. It pleases the Lord to make a people for Himself. (Yes, that’s us!)
6. Samuel considers it a sin to cease praying for the Israelites. Could it possibly be a sin to not pray for others?
7. We should faithfully serve God with all our hearts because He has done great things for us.
8. And if we continue in our sinful ways, we run the danger of being ‘swept away’ by the Lord. Definitely not a pleasant thought...
What a farewell address! What a variety of thoughts from just a few verses! God’s Word always gives us so much to consider. Through it all we need to remember His grace (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense). And then we need to put that grace into action in our lives.
Candy, what a great reminder list! We know that satan has a full satchuel of flaming arrows ready to use against us before our God. #2 on the list is one he doesn't want us to remember, which one of us hasn't had that fleeting thought before, "God must just be fed up with me, I'm just never going to get it right, surely God's had enough of me."
ReplyDeleteGrace, Grace, God's Grace we need to remember that He didn't call us because we had so much to offer Him and His kingdom, He called us because He loves us, His creation, and He sent Christ to cover us in His blood that through Him we are clean in the sight of God, take that one satan.
Your #6 is interesting to me especially as I have been very slack in prayer time for others. Until recently I have been a lazy pray'r. However in the past few days am I back at it, looking for opportunities to pray for others and amazingly there have been so many. What a blessing it is to pray for others, although I never thought that the lack of prayer could be considered sin I must agree with Samuel. We are called to pray and to pray constantly so that the roaring lion who is always in the background creeping around looking for someone to devour, must be put in his place by our prayers. Oh Candy this is good thanks for your thoughts and sharing them with us. DS