Daily Devotional for Thursday 25th January
Trust
After reflecting on relationships yesterday, we see today that David wasn’t an honest man when it came to the king of Gath. But the king, Ashish, trusted David and believed him when he lied about where he had raided. David really didn’t want his lies to be found out so when he raided places, places which were enemies of the Israelites, he had to destroy everyone and everything there. He didn’t want anyone to let the Philistines know what he was up to. His lies weren’t because he felt bad about what he was doing, instead, he was lying to gain favour with Ashish. This gave Ashish a false sense of security as he believed David really was his servant. But actually, even though he wasn’t always acting like it, David was really still the servant of God.
Saul, on the other hand, wasn’t still the servant of God. In fact, when Samuel dies and Saul is afraid of the gathered Philistine army, he goes to God to ask him what he should do. But God doesn’t answer him. There are no dreams, no visions, no prophetic words. Rather than wondering why that might be the case, rather than repenting, rather than persevering, Saul takes matters into his own hands. He asks his servants to seek out a medium so that he can go to her for advice. He wants to speak to the soul of Samuel, as that was how God had spoken to him in the past. Saul might have been acting out of fear, but his lack of trust in God led to him continuing to walk out-of-step with God. By consulting a medium he was breaking God’s rules and guidance for life: ‘Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God’ (Leviticus 19:31).
As we thought about earlier this week, when we try and do things our way we often make things worse. We want the quick fix, we don’t want to wait for God to move. We don’t want to stop and realise we need to repent. We put our trust in other people, other things, ourselves - all those will disappoint. Instead, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight’ (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Time to reflect...
• Who, or what, are you placing your trust in?
• Have you ever trusted someone and been disappointed? Have you ever felt disappointed with God?
• Is there something that you need to bring to God and repent of today?
Pause to pray…
Let’s use the words of Proverbs 3:5-6 to form our prayer today:
God, please would you help me to trust you with all my heart. Help me not to rely on my own understanding of things or to try and do things my own way. Give me the strength to trust and wait for you to move. I choose to submit all my ways to you today. Please would you make my paths straight. Give me your wisdom as I seek to follow you every day. Amen.
