Study from God’s Word…1st Samuel, Chapters 14 – 15 … Passage for Reflection: 1st Samuel 15: 24 … NIV 24 Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.”
My Journal for Today: Who are the teenagers who are able to stand up to the peer pressures and resist the crazy dress fads, the smoking, or the drugs? And to answer that question it does not take a Ph.D. in sociology, does it? No, the teens who resist peer pressure are the ones who can be their own person. They are kids who know that the acceptance of their parents, who have trained them in good morals, is more important than the acceptance of their buddies who offer acceptance into “the group.”
King Saul sinned against God because he was unable to be his own man … God’s man. He could not resist the opportunity to let arrogance and self will overwhelm his sense of what was right. Saul knew that God had been clear about absolutely obliterating the Amalekites; but after defeating them, Saul took it upon himself to keep the best booty for himself, … disobeying God; and even in today’s focus passage, we read of Saul’s weak admission that he gave in to his fear of the people rather than trusting in God and carrying our the LORD’S will.
Do you see yourself in Saul? I certainly do. Is it no wonder that I don’t have the spiritual power in my life that I could have or should have if I were just completely tuned in to and carrying out God’s will and purpose for my life. Dr. Smith today asks me, ”If I should be tempted to do something simply because of peer pressure, will I remember that the only approval I need is God’s?”
As I mull over that one, I hope you are doing the same thing; because we all need to be finding any and all human acceptance in the loving arms and caring will of God, the Father. Our Lord, God, loves us completely and fully; and all He wants for us is the best of the best. So, when we’re confronted with this need, deep within our sinful nature, to fill up our soul hole with human acceptance or the idols of life, we must somehow see that fulfilling God’s will is the only acceptance we need to seek after and to realize in our lives.
When we fill up the “love-hole,” as I call it, in our hearts with God’s will for our lives, the acceptance we will find will be complete and utterly fulfilling. Let me say that again! When we let God fill up our needs for peer acceptance, our joy will be complete and our needs will be utterly satisfied. But that can only come about when we know God completely and His will for our lives. It can only happen when we CHOOSE to follow God and we CHOOSE to fill up our hearts with God’s providence rather than the things of this world.
God says to all of us, ”Try Me! …You’ll like Me!” … Are we listening; and are we hearing Him? Because if we do, we will be completely filled up with His joy and needing none of man’s substitute pleasures.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, fill me with You … and only You. Amen
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