Archive | January 2017

1 Samuel 12- A call to repentance 

Jan24

​Good evening y’all. We are continuing our study of the first Book of Samuel with the Good Morning Girls and will be looking at chapter 12 today.

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

Samuel reminds the Israelites of all that God has done for them. In his account of Israel’s history, we can see a trend that Israel had a habit of turning away from God once things got rosy and when trouble comes they come back begging, and God always answered them by sending a deliverer.

“Then they cried to the Lord again and confessed, ‘We have sinned by turning away from the Lord and worshiping the images of Baal and Ashtoreth. But we will worship you and you alone if you will rescue us from our enemies.’ Then the Lord sent Gideon, Bedan,Jephthah, and Samuel to save you, and you lived in safety. “But when you were afraid of Nahash, the king of Ammon, you came to me and said that you wanted a king to reign over you, even though the Lord your God was already your king”.(v11-13 NLT)

How often do we tun our backs from God when things are good and only run to Him when in trouble? Our lives should not be like that…God desires us to be totally committed to Him both in the good and bad times.

Israel had God as their King but when Nahash started threatening them, they somehow forgot about all the times God had rescued them. Instead of them to cry out to God for help like they did in the time past, they decided to request for an earthly King. Perhaps they assumed the earthly king could deliver them from Nahash. Where was their trust in God?

Are we quick to forget all that God has done for us? Do we run to man for help at the first sign of trouble or do we turn to God? God is our ultimate source of help. Man’s help is vain and limited. Psalms 46:1 says

“God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble”. (Psalms 46:1 NLT)

Even though Saul did conquer Nahash in chapter 11, he did it with the help of God. We can’t rule God out. We need His help. Scripture tells us that vain is the help of man…

As I read through the chapter the Israelites response on verse 19 amazed me. They said to Samuel, “… please pray to your God…” That makes me believe these people didn’t have a relationship with God. They didn’t see God as their God rather they saw Him as Samuel’s God only.

Do we see God as our God or someone else’s God? We now have free access to God. That’s what Jesus came to do. We no longer need a go between. Jesus is our HIGH Priest. He is forever interceeeding on our behalf.  He understandsand knows our frailty.  Hebrews 4:16 says : “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT)

Samuel urged them to follow God only and leave their false gods, who are useless and couldn’t do anything for them.

“Don’t be afraid,” Samuel reassured them. “You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with all your heart, and don’t turn your back on him. Don’t go back to worshiping worthless idols that cannot help or rescue you—they are totally useless! The Lord will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the Lord to make you his very own people.(1 Samuel 12:20‭-‬22 NLT)

I pray we will listen and heed to Samuel’s advice to the Israelites in the verses above; that we will serve God wholeheartedly and learn to trust in HIM alone.

Thanks for joining today. Pls feel free to leave your thoughts on the chapter.

Have a blessed evening

1 Samuel 11 – Treaty with the Enemy 

Jan23

​Good evening y’all. We are continuing our study of 1st Samuel with Good Morning Girls and will be looking at chapter 11 today

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

“About a month later, King Nahash of Ammon led his army against the Israelite town of Jabesh-gilead. But all the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. “Make a treaty with us, and we will be your servants,” they pleaded. “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition. I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace to all Israel!”  “Give us seven days to send messengers throughout Israel!” replied the elders of Jabesh. “If no one comes to save us, we will agree to your terms.”(v1- 3 NLT)

In todays’ chapter we see the inhabitants of Jabesh -Gilead entering into a treaty with Nahash; king of the Ammonites. It seems to me the people would rather make a treaty with Nahash than attempt to even fight Him. They have been so subdued to the extent that they forgot to call on God for help. Instead they chose to take matters into their own hands.

Commentary from David Guzik on verse 2  says: “At the same time, where was their trust in God? Yes, they were in what seemed to be in an impossible place, but that is where the power of God can shine the brightest. “Instead of humbling themselves before God and confessing the sins that had brought them into trouble, they put God altogether aside, and basely offered to become the servants of the Ammonites … We see here the sad effect of sin and careless living in lowering men’s spirits, sapping courage, and discouraging noble effort. Oh, it is pitiable to see men tamely submitting to a vile master! Yet how often is the sight repeated! How often do men virtually say to the devil, ‘Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee’!” (Balike)

Nahash agreed to their treaty but on only one condition that he would be allowed to gouge out the right eye of every single person. The people of Jabesh were happy with that. They would rather be slaves with one eye than be dead.  They proceeded to ask Nahash for 7 days to see if any of the other towns in Israel will be willing to help them. Nahash agreed to their request.

This got me wondering, “why the condition of gouging out their right eye?” I later found out that in battle, the men used their left shield to defend their left eye which leaves them with the right eye to see with. Nahash removing their right eye leaves them useless and helpless in the face of battle. Also Nahash wants to use it as a sign to show Israel’s weakness.

How often do we make deals with the devil just because we feel helpless? Instead of turning to God and asking for His help.

I will leave us with this summary of verses 1 – 3 by David Guzik-

“We can see in this account a similarity between Satan, our spiritual enemy, and Nahash, the enemy of Israel.

i. Satan attacks us, but cannot do anything against us without our agreement. He asks for, and requires our surrender.

ii. Satan wants us to serve him, and will attempt to intimidate us into giving in to him.

iii. Satan wants to humiliate us, and exalt himself over us. Through humiliating one saint, Satan wants to bring reproach on all God’s people.

iv. Satan wants to take away our ability to effectively fight against him.

v. Satan wants to blind us, and if he cannot blind us completely, he will blind us partially”

It is my hope that when it seems like we are between a rock and hard place, our hearts will quickly run to God for help rather than make deals with the devil. I pray it will be so for us all, in Jesus Name. Amen.

Thanks for joining today. Pls feel free to leave your thots on the chapter in the comments section.

Have a blessed evening 🙂