1 Samuel 15:22-23 But Samuel replied, "What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubborness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king."
My Thoughts
Saul knew what God wanted! He had been told...yet Saul did what he wanted to do...and when he knew he was caught he tried to make it better... he actually tried to lie his way out of what he had done..by saying "Oh, I know I wasn't suppose to keep these thing... I just kept them to give the to God." God knew Saul's heart!!..
God knows our hearts too.. God knows when we mess up but we are trying...and God knows when we are being a bit selfish and not really trying at all. We can lie to others like Saul lied to Samuel.. and we can even lie to ourselves... that is usually what we are doing when we are trying to justify thing in our head. But, we can never lie to God and God not know where our heart actually is. Even when we don't want to see the truth.
Saul was trying to bribe God with treasures so that God would forgive him. Sometimes we try to bribe God by going to Church and tithing...hoping to make our wrongs all better. What Saul didn't do is say "God I know you told to to get rid of everything...even all the good stuff... but I didn't! I did wrong and I am so sorry!" We can go to Church...and tithe..and smile and be nice to people...we can sing praises to God... but all that is null and void if we are not sorry for our sins...all that is useless if we don't go to God and say I really messed up and I am sorry!
Saul sinned by not doing what God ask of him... I think Saul separated himself from God by not being honest, by not being remorseful... by not admitting what he did was wrong. That is what separates him from God.
I think learning to do better is a process...and some of our sins are harder to "give up" than others. But instead of ignoring them...we have to keep asking for forgiveness...keep being sorry that we have done the same thing wrong again...and eventually we start becoming more and more aware and we get better at recognizing sin... First we recognize a sin enough to know we have sinned.... then we begin to ask forgiveness ...then the next step is asking forgiveness immediately after the sin...then we learn to at least stop ourselves in the middle of the sin.... then we catch ourselves just after the thought but before the action. The first step is learning something is a sin...then God gives us His grace to do better, and better and better. Saul didn't want to admit He sinned..even when it was brought to his attention he denied it.
Saul's stubbornness got in the way!!.. Saul's stubbornness made him loose his kingdom... Saul'stubbornness separated him from God! The devil loves to talk us into being stubborn...he even tells us we have the right to be that way! It is important for us to learn to recognize our stubbornness and see if it is separating us form God... and from all that God has to give us!
No comments:
Post a Comment