The Pursuit

So I was spending time with the Lord today and I kept thinking about the power of His Name and like pursuing Him. So, I have been studying out of 1 Samuel recently, and God delivered a blow to my Spirit this evening in 1 Samuel 12. Up to this point, the Israelites had been following this sort of pattern of being given a king by the Lord after a longing amongst them arose, and after time passed they began to simply forget that they were to serve the Lord and began to focus on solely serving the king. So God rebuked them by defeat in numerous accounts throughout Joshua, Judges, and early Samuel. So they were crying out again for a king to lead them into military victory, and yet again God offered them another one, all while sitting patiently like to say okay, when are you going to serve ME? 

So, in chapter 12, Samuel addresses Israel on this very issue and declares to them that Saul has been appointed by God to rule over them as king since they so desperately desired one (sarcastic). But what really stood out to me was in the latter half of ch. 12 when Samuel warns them of what is to come if they turn their backs on God on account of their service to the king. He prays to the Lord in verse 18 for thunder and rain to be sent to their land, and God delivered. It goes on to say that the people feared Samuel and God and asked Samuel to pray to the Lord on their behalf, so that they may not die. Samuel comforts and convicts them in verses 20-21 by saying, "Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile." 

Wow, Samuel is declaring something over the Israelites so powerful and so relevant to the consequences of their actions. Something so similar to what should be declared over the world today. I mean we all have heard Romans 3:23 that says, "For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God", so it should be clear to us that we are rotten sinners deserving eternal punishment. But as Samuel says, "you have committed all this evil, yet DO NOT turn aside from the Lord, but serve him with all your heart." I mean, thats profound, yeah dude you screwed up big time, but guess what God forgives you, don't give up on pursuing Him. Instead, RUN after Him, chase His righteousness! For that moment that you begin to turn aside because you feel you have screwed up too big for God's grace to cover and that Jesus didn't shed enough of His blood on the cross to cover "that sin", then you fall into futile things. Websters defines futile as "something incapable of producing results, or pointless." Wow, so when we begin to walk away and turn aside, we are walking into pure nothingness, absolute desolation. 

Samuel goes on to say in verse 22, "For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself." Now, i know it's Old Testament and Samuel is speaking about the Jews here, but Romans 3:29 states, "Or is God the God of only the Jews? Is He not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, the Gentiles also." Believers are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and become co-heirs with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. So, wouldn't you say that the Lord would not abandon you according to these two verses. 

Samuel wraps it all up in verses 24-25, by saying," Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what good things he has done for you. BUT if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away." Okay, so this isn't some melancholy, sugar-coated description of God's jealous wrath upon those who turn from Him and pursue wicked and futile things, it is a brutal picture of His jealous love for those He calls His own. I declare to you that no matter if you're a christian, atheist, scientologist, buddhist, so on and so forth, God has done great things for you. Period. Do you wake up in the morning breathing? Because if He didn't want you to, i can assure you that you would not. Do you get to nourish your body with food and water each day? You get my point. God is the provider of life, the means by which you exist, so check yourself at the door when you begin to wonder where God is in a dying world or a fallen humanity.

I pray that God has spoken over your heart with this passage, I know that He certainly spoke to me through it. We must as the Body of Christ, begin to see the provisions that God is delivering us each and every day and let them be the means by which we fall more in love with Him and pursue Him to be satisfied more and more by Him alone.