Tag Archive | women living well

1 Samuel 16- Inward or Outward….

Jan30

​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 16 today

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

Here we see God instruct Samuel to go ordain a new King for Israel. God specifically told him which house to go to. Samuel obeyed and went but when he got there and he saw the first child, he automatically assumed he must be the one God was referring to. He had no basis other than the fact that Eliab looked the part. Samuel judged based on the outward appearance.

“Yes,” Samuel replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then Samuel performed the purification rite for Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice, too. When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (v5-7 NLT)

God had to remind him who is in charge of the mission and that He (God) doesn’t reason the way we reason. We look at the outward appearance but at the inside.

We can fool people by our outward appearances but we cant fool God. God knows us inside and out. Jeremiah 1:5  says “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart…”

The standard with which we look at people is completely different from the standard God uses. God is all about whats going on in the inside because if the inside is correct, then it will show in the outward appearance

I pray when God looks at us, He will find us worthy. May our thoughts and inward appearance be acceptable in His sight at all times in Jesus name. Amen

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

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