"...The Lord has anointed you..." 1 Samuel 10:1.
Saul was tall,
handsome, charismatic and
anointed by God to lead his chosen people.
He
began well but ended by committing suicide.
Obviously it is not enough
to be chosen by God,
to be given His Spirit, His seal of approval.
What
went wrong?
First Saul was impatient,
he did not wait for God to tell
him
what to do through His prophet Samuel.
Then he blamed others for his
mistakes,
not learning from them.
Then he became arrogant,
acting as if
he did not need God.
Finally he blatantly disobeyed God's commands.
So I
have to watch out for my impatience,
even the little ones,
like when I
am unkind to telemarketers
who bother me when I am busy,
or to sales
people who take
too long doing their job,
or with people who do not
understand my instructions.
Unkindness, impatience are little things
but
lead to bigger things like arrogance,
rebellion and disobedience,
that
bring us farther and farther away from God!
That's what I've learned
from poor Saul
who was so blessed when he was young!
"Obedience is better than sacrifice."
1 Samuel 15:22
Samuel the prophet told this to Saul
after Saul blatantly disobeyed God's order
to destroy ALL of the Amalekites.
But Saul kept the best of the sheep and oxen,
to sacrifice to God.
Sometimes we may have good intentions,
but if we do not take the time to read
God's letter to us, the Bible,
if we don't take time to pray
and to listen to Him,
how can we obey?
"...God..who has blessed us in Christ
with
every spiritual blessing in the heavens...
chose us in Him, before the
foundation of the world...
I pray that he will give light to the eyes of
your hearts,
so that you will understand
the hope to which he has called you,
what rich glories there are in the
inheritance he has promised his people..." Ephesians 1:3,18
This passage is especially meaningful to me today,
This passage is especially meaningful to me today,
as yesterday a good
and faithful brother,
the son of dear friends, passed away.
Hanzel Sarceda
was so young,
so full of promise, so eager to serve God
and his younger
brothers and sisters....
Why Lord? Why take Him away from us
at the
prime of his life?
Why take him away from his parents who spent
the
whole of their lives serving you?
It does not make sense!
But
if we see through the eyes of our hearts,
if the Holy Spirit illumines
the truth for us,
we realize that Hanzel now has what we all hope for.
He is claiming his inheritance now!
Too soon, we say.
But God claims His
precious ones when He wants to!
Perhaps we are the ones called too
late!
There are still things we need to do
to claim the riches of his
glory!
I like to think of Hanzel basking in the Father's embrace.
It
makes his passing on easier to understand.
In Deuteronomy 28 ,
it lists down the blessings that are ours
when we obey.
All those blessings are now covering Hanzel!
I find a lot of inspiration
visiting here:
So many WONDERFUL blogfriends
to discover!
Blessings,
Patsy
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