Tag Archive | good morning girls

1 Samuel 8 – Israel Demands a King

Jan18

​Good evening y’all. We are continuing our study of 1st Samuel with Good Morning Girls and will be looking at chapter 8 today

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

It’s interesting that Samuel made the same mistakes with his kids as Eli, the high priest before him. Scriptures tell us that his kids were greedy they were not like their father.

“As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice” (v1-3 NLT).

I ask myself why do these priests have this trend of their children not following in their steps: not serving God wholeheartedly as their fathers did. I guess the priests were very busy with God’s work and forgot to spend time with their family.

I pray as parents we will learn to teach our children the ways of the Lord and correct them in love when they err.

The Israelites felt Samuel was getting too old and they did not want his children to take over. So they asked Samuel to give them a king like the other nations. This suggest to me that the reason they wanted a king wasn’t really because Samuel was old and couldn’t judge them again but because they wanted to be like the other nations. The other nations didn’t have prophets or judges ruling over them they had kings. 

This got me thinking: Do I do things just because others are doing it? Do I ask myself if it’s what God wants from me at the time? I pray we get to a point were we are not controlled by what’s happening in the lives of others but rather focused on what it is that God wants for us.

Samuel wasn’t too happy about their request. I particularly love the fact that he didn’t act in the flesh. He chose to go back to God to ask for His direction on the matter

“Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance” (v6 NLT).

Do we make decisions without consulting God?  Samuel has been Israel judge for years, he could have chosen to act on his wealth of experience and decide to chose someone as his successor or king for Isreal. Instead he chose to consult God. He recognized God as the One who placed him in that position in the first place. God was his Employer and before making decisions he has to consult his Employer.

I pray we learn from Samuel to always consult God before we make decisions. No matter how much we think we know, God still knows more than us. Proverbs 3: 5-6  says;

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take”.

God told Samuel to honor the Israelites’ request. He said they weren’t rejecting Samuel but rejecting Him.

“Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them” (v 7-9 NLT).

In what ways have we been unfaithful to God?. Constantly rejecting Him, and only coming to Him when we need help; and once every thing is rosy we turn our backs on Him. That’s what the Israelites had been doing since God delivered them from Egypt.

Even though God warned them about the consequences of having a king, they still insisted on having one. They wanted to be like the other nations so bad that they refused to obey God’s warning. 

I pray we all learn to yield to God’s will for our lives and learn to trust in HIm and not lean on our own understanding when making decisions: let’s learn to acknowledge Him at all times. In Jesus’s Name. Amen

Thanks for joining today. 

Have a blessed evening 🙂

1 Samuel 6&7 – True Repentance

Jan17

​Good evening y’all. We are continuing our study of 1st Samuel with Good Morning Girls and will be looking at chapters Samuel 6 and 7 today.

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

The start of chapter 6 tells us the Philistines kept the Ark for God for 7 months.

“The Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory seven months in all” (v1 NLT)

 With all the tumors and death that plagued the Philistines, I wonder why they kept the Ark of God for that long. I’m guessing they held on to it because they were still debating whether it was the God of Israel that was punishing them or not.

David Guzik in his commentary on the chapter said the Philistines kept the Ark for 7 months “Because they were reluctant to give up such a wonderful “trophy” of what they at first felt was such a victory over the God of Israel. It can take a long time before we realize the futility of resisting God!” 

Rather than repent and return the Ark to where it belongs, they chose to keep enduring until they came to a point they decided they couldn’t take anymore. They decided to put the God of Israel to a test: to see if indeed the plagues were from him

They consulted their priests and diviners who rightly advised them to send the Ark back along with a guilt offering. What caught my attention, in verse 6 especially, was the advice given by their priests and diviners for them not to be strong-headed like the Egyptians.

“Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go” (v6 NLT).

Their spiritual counsellors and leaders understood that no one can fight with God and win. Better to surrender to his will.

Let’s spend some time to ponder on our lives…are we resisting God or yielding to His will? Are we living for Him or to please ourselves? For how long do we want to keep sinning and not repent?

In chapter 7, Israel was mourning the loss of the Ark. Samuel told them that if they truly want to repent then they had to get rid of their idols and fully give their hearts back to the Lord. Only then would the LORD deliver them out of the hands of the Philistines.

“Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” (1 Sam7: 3 NLT)

We can’t just come to God with lip service. If indeed we are truly sorry, we will give up the things that made God upset with us in the first place. We won’t hold on to them.  2 Corinthians 7:10 says: 
“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death” (NLT)

The Israelites obeyed Samuel and got rid of their idols. Their act of true repentance saw God fight on their behalf against the same Philistines who defeated them in earlier chapter. 

When we truly repent and turn from our evil ways God will indeed arise on our behalf and fight our battles. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says 
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land’.(NLT)

Samuel proceeded to name the place where they defeated the enemy as Ebenezer which means stone of help or thus far the Lord has helped us.

I pray we will learn to truly turn away from our sins and totally yield to God. May He arise for us and give us victory on all sides 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