Verse of the day: 1 Samuel 7:3, Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
The Israelites, once again, have felt and experienced the desolation that comes from forsaking God. In verse 2 we are told that Israel “lamented after the Lord”. In other words, they cried out in anguish after the Lord. How often have we found ourselves in this position, after we have forsaken our prayer and study time? How often have we drifted away from the Lord, only to find ourselves in that place of emptiness and maybe even heartache over troubling times the Lord has allowed to arise in order to get our attention? What we often forget is that when we start down that slippery slope of dabbling in sin and doing things that we know we should not be doing, or we begin to make other things and people a priority over God, we begin to drift further and further away from God, until one day we find ourselves sitting in the midst of the broken pieces of our lives. We cry out to the Lord, and sometime wonders why we cannot feel His presence. Why is God ignoring us? Has He forsaken us as we have forsaken Him? The truth of the matter is that God never forsakes us. That is His promise to us in Hebrews 13:5, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Samuel, in speaking to the house of Israel, clearly instructed them in what they needed to do in order to restore their relationship to the Lord. Israel was to first return to the Lord with all their hearts. This was a call for complete submission and surrender to the Lord. This was not to be a half-hearted commitment. Far too many of us try to get away with this in our relationship with the Lord. We want to serve God, but only when it is convenient. We want to pray and study the Word, as long as it does not interfere with our plans for the day, and as long as it does not require sacrificing a little sleep, so that we can start our day a bit earlier in order to get that accomplished. We will serve God, as long as it does not take away from our hobby time, our game time, or our personal goals in getting ahead in this life. We will do whatever God wants us to, as long as we do not have to give of our material goods, time, or our money. In all of this, we constantly complain when our plans fall through, or our debt grows (that we created), or trials come to visit up close and personal. We then blame God for allowing these things to happen when we have been such “good Christians”. Yet, we fail to see that we have made for ourselves many gods that we are serving, and have forsaken the One True God. Jobs, material things, money, hobbies, entertainment, and other people have become our gods, and God has had to take a backseat to all of it in our lives. Samuel did not mince words when he told them to “put away the foreign gods”. What gods are we serving that we need to turn away from in order to truly turn back to God? Samuel made it clear that the only way God would deliver them from their desolation was to return to Him with all their hearts, put away their foreign gods, prepare their hearts, and serve Him only. As God’s children, we try too hard to divide our time and affections between God and the things we desire, even if we know that the things we desire are wrong. We set our earthly goals above all else. We will spend hours doing things to “get ahead” in this life, but cannot take time to sit quietly with God, reading His Word and praying. When the desolation comes, we act as if this is some strange thing that has happened, that we do not deserve to experience. If we are to truly return to God, we must do so wholeheartedly. We cannot come to the Lord with half-hearted commitments that we will break the moment He calls us out of our comfort zone. We must turn away from the things and people who have become more important than Him in our lives. There is a place in the priorities of life for everyone and everything, and God should always be first. We must surrender to serving God only, forsaking all the other gods in our lives. We must be ready to do whatever He calls us to and give whatever He calls us to give of our time and resources, which are His in the first place. We must prepare, or establish, our hearts, by making the choice to make God the only God in our lives. In short, we must repent and get back to what is truly important in this life, living for, serving, and glorifying God with our words, actions, and deeds. We must be the living sacrifices we are called to be for the glory of God (Romans 12:1-2).
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
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