Daily Devotional for Wednesday 25th October
Our own strength is not enough
The LORD God chose Saul from the smallest tribe, Benjamin, and he was the youngest of his family, and he hid in the baggage area (Ch 10:22) when Samuel came to choose the king God would anoint over Israel. From that place, God filled Saul with His Spirit and anointed him for his task. The problem is that as Saul gained in military expertise, as his army grew and he won his battles, he began to believe the hype about himself and he started acting on his own without God’s voice and wisdom, and ignored what Samuel, the high priest and prophet of his time, told Saul to do. And he made excuses when it didn’t go well. Saul thought his own strength was enough.
Saul was a good general and he won battles, at first. If he had honoured God for it all, and obeyed Him, and listened to His priest and prophet, instead of caving to the people’s opinions and mood, God would have blessed him. Instead he chose to place more importance on keeping the people’s good opinion over God’s and then wondered why it started not going so well for him.
What God looks for are hearts that look to Him, with love, trust and obedience, not expedience, and certainly not disobedience. Jesus is our perfect example of someone who led from a place of humility, love, honesty and yes, strength! He looked to God the Father in all things, and so should we. It matters who we stand with, who we look to, and it should be with God who is the One who blesses us with all things. He is mighty to save!
Time to reflect…
· Whose good opinion do we care about the most? Does God’s opinion of us factor into our motivations and decisions?
· When we are tempted to take credit for something, and not give God the glory acknowledging His help in our lives, how can we respond differently?
· Can we see how humility like Jesus had is actually a strength? What does that look like?
Pause to pray…
Dear Father God, please forgive us when we try to take the credit ourselves, when we don’t acknowledge Your answers to prayer and stance for us in our lives. Please teach us how to ride the donkey of humility like Jesus did. Give us eyes to see these things from Your perspective, and strengthen us in our hearts to care more about what You think! In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
