Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a You Tube video of a friend of mine, Clay Crosse, with two of his friends, Bebe Winans and Bob Carlisle, singing … I Will Follow Christ, powerfullly declaring in song what should be the goal of every Christian … to follow Christ ALWAYS!!!
Highlight Passage: 1st Samuel 25:25 [NKJV] …
25 Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him!
… Abagail honoring her foolish husband by warning David and providing him with the hospitality which Nabal should’ve offered David’s men earlier.
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Highlight Context: 1st Samuel 25 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The story of Nabal, the fool, and the warning given to David of his foolishness by Nabal’s wife, Abagail
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Reference Passage #1 … Proverbs 3:5-6, 23:7 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God wants us to think as He thinks and live as He would live, not as the fool our natural self would lead us to be.
Reference Passage #2 … Jeremiah 17:9 [NKJV] …
9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; … who can know it?
… Our base nature, … our human default … is from a wicked and perverse heart.
Reference Passage #3 … Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] …
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. …”
… Jesus’ command to overcome our base nature and to follow Him.
My Journal for Today: … Our Daily Bread author, Marvin Williams, used the confrontation that King David had with the wealthy fool, Nabal, in 1Samuel 25 (see above). He wrote: An appropriate warning label that Nabal could have worn would have been: “Expect folly from a fool.” He certainly was irrational as he addressed David. On the run from Saul, David had provided security detail for the sheep of a wealthy man named Nabal. When David learned that Nabal was shearing those sheep and celebrating with a feast, he sent ten of his men to politely ask for food as remuneration for these duties (vv. 4–8).
Nabal’s response to David’s request was beyond rude. He said, “Who is this David? . . . Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat . . . , and give it to men coming from who knows where?” (vv. 10–11). He broke the hospitality code of the day by not inviting David to the feast, disrespected him by calling out insults, and essentially stole from him by not paying him for his work.
And ODB Author Williams’ observation that we all have a little - if not a lot - of Nabal in us is spot on, isn’t it? There are times when we let our selfish, natural, foolishness get in the way of Godly wisdom [see attached photo]; and it can cause great grief and calamity. If you read in 1st Samuel 25, Nabal’s foolishness caused him his life.
And so, if we cannot overcome our natural heart (see Jer. 17:9) and follow Christ (as He commanded in Luke 9:23 and is sung in the linked song), we will become the fool who we were born to become WITHOUT Christ.
But with Him - and by following Him - we can be led to glory. I don’t know about any other reader here with me today, but that’s my goal.
My Prayer Today: Lord, lead me away from my foolish self and toward the Savior. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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