Christian Devotional – January 5, 2023

The God who Hears, Day 4

“Let’s get God to do what we want.” Read 1 Samuel chapter 4.

The Israelites have been fighting against the Philistines and they have been getting beaten. So they have the bright idea that, instead of going to God and asking him for help, they should just take the ark that represents God’s presence to the battlefield and everything will be ok. They didn’t bother to ask God what they should do. They didn’t even understand what the ark of God represented in the first place. They wanted to fight a battle and so they told God that was what they were doing and decided to drag him along.

How often have we told God what we are going to do instead of asking God what he wants us to do? God hadn’t even told the people to be fighting. Yet we do this so often with God. We think we know best and that we are going to just move forward, but instead of asking God, we try to take him along with us and hope that he will bless what we are doing. We must start coming to God and asking him what we should be doing. God’s will is for us to follow. God doesn’t follow our will. Are we truly seeking after him today?