The God who Hears, Day 14 The consequences of our sin. Read 1 Samuel chapter 14. The people of Israel rebelled against God and asked God to give them a king. They didn’t want to just have God as their king, they wanted a physical human being as king. God shared with the people that a king would demand things from them and would take things from them, and the people agreed that they were OK with that. Here, we see the start of this. Saul starts to draft people into the military, whether they wanted to be or not. When we sin, there are consequences to that. When we…

The God who Hears, Day 13 Define foolishness. Read 1 Samuel chapter 13. What does it mean to be foolish? Often when we think of someone who is foolish, we envision people with a lack of intelligence or who have made incorrect choices. That’s partially the answer. However, we can more broadly, and accurately, define foolishness as anything that is disobedient to the Lord. The definition of foolishness is a direct correlation to our understanding and obedience of the will of God in our lives. Every time we make a decision to disobey what God has called us to do, we are acting foolishly. What is wisdom? To obey the…

The God who Hears, Day 12 Our prayer responsibility. Read 1 Samuel chapter 12. Samuel is coming to the place of his retirement. He has served the Lord for many years and served him well. He comes before the new king Saul and all of the people and reminds them of the way in which he has faithfully served God for all these years. Samuel reminds the people of the importance of obeying the Lord and following him. Samuel then tells the people that he will be praying for them. More than that, that it would be a sin for him not to pray for them. Do we realize our…

The God who Hears, Day 11 Is anger a sin? Read 1 Samuel chapter 11. I’ve heard that question asked several times and in several ways by many people throughout the years. Is anger a sin? And the answer is, by itself no, anger itself is not a sin. However, it’s important to understand why we get angry and what we do when we get angry. You see, throughout scripture God gets angry and Jesus gets angry. However, what made them angry were things that were against the holiness of God. Those things should make us angry too. As examples, things like slavery and human trafficking and racism are direct…

The God who Hears, Day 10 God always knows best. Read 1 Samuel chapter 10. Samuel is announcing to the people God’s choice of king. When they see him, they recognize good man and appreciate God’s choice. Even though the people were unwilling to follow God’s plan and allow him to be their king, they still were willing to allow God to choose the man who would be king for them. How well do we follow God’s plan for us? Do we follow partially, like the people of Israel were doing here? Do we follow completely like Samuel urged the people to? Or do we turn our back on God…

The God who Hears, Day 9 The picture of a king. Read 1 Samuel chapter 9. As we meet Saul for the first time, we see a man that is the picture of exactly what one would expect to see in a king. He is tall and handsome. Yet at no point through this selection process does God reveal Saul’s heart or his devotion or obedience to God. God hears everything and knows everything and he knew what was in Saul’s heart. God knows us and while we may be focused on the perfect exterior look, God sees the heart and knows what is there. Are we staying focused on…

The God who Hears, Day 8 We want to be like everyone else. Read 1 Samuel chapter 8. The people want a king. They look around and see all ther other nations with their kings and they want to be just like them. So they ask Samuel for a king. Samuel doesn’t want to give that to them, but they insist and God tells him to go ahead. How often do we want something simply because people around us have it? Looking at what God provides for us, we have to remember and understand that God does everything for us and there is nothing that we can do for ourselves.…

The God who Hears, Day 7 The reminder stone. Read 1 Samuel chapter 7. The Lord had provided tremendous victory for the people of Israel. As a result, Samuel wants to set up a reminder for the people. He puts a stone in place and named it Ebenezer, as a reminder that God has helped them this far. We can trust God and everything that we do, but sometimes we have a terrible memory problem. We get caught up in the circumstances of the day and don’t remember that God helped us in the past. God has been faithful in the past. God moved in the past. As a result,…

The God who Hears, Day 6 History repeating itself. Read 1 Samuel chapter 6. The Philistines found themselves in a difficult situation. They had captured the Ark Of God, however they were experiencing plagues that were killing their people as a result. They realized that the Ark of God was fighting against them. Interestingly, they knew the stories of how the people of Israel had come out of Egypt. They knew that pharaoh had hardened his heart and as a result many people had died. So, they decided to not relive that part of history. They decided to give the Ark back. When we read the Bible and we look…

The God who Hears, Day 5 God is truly Lord over all. Read 1 Samuel chapter 5. This may be one of my favorite chapters in all of scripture. What an amazing display of God’s power and authority over absolutely everything. We may try to put up idols in our life, but nothing can stand in the presence of our holy, awesome God. Knowing that God is holy and treating him as if he is holy are two different things. What do our daily actions look like and how do they demonstrate the holiness of God? Do we try to add God to any other idols that we have set…