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My God is…Served 1 Samuel 12:20-24

I Samuel 12:20-24 – And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; and do not turn aside after useless things that cannot profit or save, for they are useless. For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.

Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil

“Forget this; I’ve already messed up so badly, why bother?” Have you ever felt that way? You’ve sinned, you feel bad about it, but you don’t turn away from the sin. Sometimes our shame from our sin is exactly what helps to keep us in our sin. Maybe this hasn’t happened to you, and I hope it hasn’t, but it has happened to me. I have sinned and then said, well I crossed that line, now what’s the difference. What does it matter if I change my ways, people will always know me for that sin. These are lies by the way. The devil wants us to hold on to our sin. Satan will use whatever he can to keep us from standing in the grace of God. When we act like this, whether it is a brush with the law, drinking, sex, drugs or using profanity, we do not have to remain in the sin. You and I have not gone beyond God’s grace. We can’t. We can never go so far that God cannot redeem us. His mercy and grace are waiting for us. We don’t have to fear the wrath of God or the judgement of people, because when we repent and turn from our sin, God is faithful with His mercy and grace.

Do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart

heart-love

We need to keep our focus on the Lord. When we’re tempted to say we’re a hopeless case, our focus is on ourselves. We’re saying we’re too far gone, we’ve made too big of mistakes, but as Christians, we don’t need to fear how far gone we are or how big our mistakes are, because God, who is capable of all things is bigger than our mistakes. He can forgive us and give us mercy beyond any of our failures. So what are we to do when we realize we are in the midst of sin? We need to serve the Lord with all our heart. We need to refocus. We need to keep our eyes on God. It’s important that we surround ourselves with people who feel the same way about God. We need to have Christian friends and acquaintances who will hold us accountable and point us back towards God when we go astray. The Lord can use our friends to redirect us back to Him when the sins and pleasures of this world distract us from God.

Do not turn aside after useless things that cannot profit or save, for they are useless

Our world is very focused on ourselves. We talk about what we have achieved for ourselves. What we want. What we deserve. But outside of God, everything else is useless. With God, all things have more meaning. It isn’t wrong to be successful, but if it distracts us from our Lord and His saving grace it is. It isn’t wrong to be in love with someone, but if it distracts us from God, it is wrong. The good in this world is only good as long as we are focused on God. It is only good because of what God has done for us. Without the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, all our works are like dirty rags. Our accomplishments, our money, our legacies are nothing without them being centered on Jesus Christ. Only with God at the center of our actions can anything be “good”. God is the source of all goodness.

Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.

God has done so much for us. We need to put God at the top of our list and serve Him. Put Him at the center of your life and things will change. You can be sure of that. Some people won’t like it. Some people will disown you. Some people will ridicule you, but we can stand strong, because the Lord is good and will bring us through all trouble and we will be able to enjoy eternal life with Him in heaven. God has made sure, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, that we will be blessed for all eternity. He is not going to get rid of those who love Him, who put Him first in their lives. He loves us, and because He loves us, we are free to serve Him in everything we do. Because of His love, we are free to turn from our sin, not become a hopeless case. He can turn our lives around. When we put Him first, changes will be made in our lives. By His strength and mercy, we no longer have to give in to things that are destructive. We can live free of the burden of our sin, and stand strong in the grace and forgiveness provided by our Lord Jesus Christ. Stand free. Stand Strong. Turn from Sin. Cling to Him.

 
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Posted by on October 16, 2013 in 1 Samuel, My God is Served

 

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My God is…making my paths straight Proverbs 3:5-8

Proverbs 3:5-8 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart,Pug dog handout isolated on white
and do not rely on your own insight.
 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
 It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.

Easier said than done, eh? I know that each day this is a struggle for me. I start most days planning to trust the Lord, then I get out of bed. Each thing I do, I try to do my own way. I focus on my solutions without approaching God for guidance. I know that some of my unbelieving but loving friends would question whether I’m supposed to go to God in everything. They would wonder why I shouldn’t make decisions all on my own or with my own goals in mind. The problem is, I cannot be trusted. Maybe by the world’s standards I can, but not by what God asks of us. He wants us to put Him first in all things, and to be honest, I don’t do that very well. I think about myself more than anyone else. That’s a little embarrassing to say (or write) out loud, but it’s the truth. Most things I do in a day are to make me happy. They’re done with little regard for anyone else, let alone God. It probably doesn’t seem that bad to the outside observer. I’m not hurting people on purpose, I’m not overly rude, and I’m not interfering with other peoples’ day just for fun. But I’m also not thinking about how to help others, what I can do to bring glory to God or make someone’s day a little brighter. I wonder how things would change if I truly trusted the Lord in all things, putting Him first and consulting with Him more.

 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

When you want to lead an animal someplace, what do you do? You use a leash or a coaxing mechanism like food to get them to follow you along the paths. When you do that (and I say you, because I try to have as little to do with animals as possible – no hate mail, please), you’re trying to get the animal to focus on you so you can get them where they need to be. You’re counting on the fact that they’re not going to be able to take their eyes off that morsel of food you’re using to tempt them. A lot of times it works too, because animals think of only themselves. Humans aren’t far behind, but if we keep our focus on Jesus, we know that He will make our paths straight. He will be leading us. Like the animals trust you, we too can follow our master and be assured that He’s got something good for us at the end of the path.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

But we get distracted. If someone comes up while you’re trying to lead your animal a certain direction and offers them something else that they want, they can become distracted. They may not know which way to turn. Now, depending on your relationship with that animal, how well they know you and trust you, they may not turn away for long. But that doesn’t mean the untrustworthy stranger will give up. We kind of work the same way. We start out following God, but then the devil distracts us with a whole myriad of distractions. They may not even be bad things all on their own, but that’s not the devil’s point. The devil isn’t really worried about how bad the things are that you do, he’s more interested in where your focus is, or to what you’re giving your focus. He wants to keep us looking towards anything that distracts us from keeping our focus on the Lord. Big events to small problems, the devil uses them all, but each of these events is an opportunity to turn towards the one who does have our best interest at heart – Jesus Christ.

 It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.

The devil doesn’t want anything good for us, but God does. His path ultimately leads us to perfect healing and refreshment. When we follow the Lord, knowing that it is only through Jesus that we escape our terrible doom, putting our faith in our savior Jesus, we will end up in heaven. There we will no longer experience the pain, sorrow and hurts of this world. We will find refreshment and healing!

Do you need refreshing?

 

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