Recovery Devotional 304 God's Competition

JMD Devotional 304 1 Samuel 12:20-25 God’s Competition

[Setting: Israel demanded an Earthly King in order to be like the surrounding nations, thus rejecting God as their sovereign. God gave them their ‘King’ (Saul), and Samuel called a thunderstorm down upon their harvest to make them aware of the gravity of their transgression.]

And Samuel said to the people, Fear not. You have indeed done all this evil; yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve Him with all your heart. And turn not aside after vain and worthless things which cannot profit or deliver you, for they are empty and futile. The Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake, for it has pleased Him to make you a people for Himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; for consider how great are the things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king shall be swept away.

It is an exceeding good thing that God cares about His reputation, and for His name’s sake will rescue His treacherous and unfaithful ‘followers’, to a point. Otherwise, we all would have been found to be unfit; God would have been just in severing His ties to us long ago. Our foolishness puts us in need of amazing grace. Praise God for the prophets, preachers and counselors who speak the hard truths that convict our waywardness! Praise God for the problems---the unpleasant consequences of our rebellion that instruct us in righteousness the hard way! Any suffering that we endure for our salvation (which we by no means earn) sure beats eternal oblivion! And who and what are the contenders, the pleasures, people and things that compete with our primary love and allegiance for God? Could anyone face the Almighty and actually say, “I loved pornographic images more than the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit”? Or, “I wanted the praise and acceptance of the reprobates at work more than pleasing You?” “All those rusted, moldy and moth-eaten things seemed more worthy of my time than the Great Commission when I was alive?” The Bible tells us 365 times to “fear not”; but sometimes a little fear is healthy.

Dear God,

Help me to fear You, and not lesser things. Keep me from folly. My actions say retched things that my lips would never utter: forgive my great iniquity! Thank You for the unpleasant medications that help me withdraw from sin. May Your holy influence transform my heart to treasure righteousness and purity and goodness like You do. May I not take Your grace for granted.

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

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