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…

The God who Hears, Day 3 Do we see God moving in others? Read 1 Samuel chapter 3. I have read through this passage numerous times, and I’m always struck by the innocence of the young Samuel hearing the voice of the Lord for the first time. Yet, if it wasn’t for Eli, Samuel might not have recognized what was happening. Eli was the one who directed him on how to listen to the Lord and respond. Eli was the one who recognized what was happening. How many times has God tried to speak to me and I didn’t recognize it? How many times has God had a message for…

The God who Hears, Day 2 God is the provider. Read 1 Samuel chapter 2. As we look and understand this 2nd chapter of a 1 Samuel, we see the joy that Hannah describes as she praises God for the birth of her son Samuel. She understands and shares a very important truth about who God is. God is the one who gives and God is the one who takes away. Everything we have and everything we don’t have is a result of God’s allowing it in our life. We can be frustrated by what we don’t have, but we misunderstand that God is the one who brings us everything…

The God who Hears, Day 1 The God who hears. Read 1 Samuel chapter 1. When you read through the history of the people of Israel, so much of what happens can be boiled down to the phrase, “the God who hears.” You see, as the people are going through situations, they cry out to God and he hears them. He hears them as a nation and he hears them as individuals. This chapter starts off two books of history of the nation of Israel, and it begins with a story of a woman in distress who cried out to God, and he heard her. So many times we turn…