Discussion Questions : What are your fears when you see difficulties and obstacles in your way? Where is your safe haven during conflict; in God or in yourself? How can impatience lead to self-sufficiency?<\/p>\n
Food for thought:<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all heard ourselves say, \u201cI know what you said, but I thought\u2026\u201d Our spouse gave us advice, but we thought our way was better. Our friend told us we were driving in the wrong direction, but we thought we were taking a short cut. The Lord gave us a clear command from Scripture, but we surely know our lives better than He does. We are challenged to remain obedient even when we are under pressure, facing obstacles or think we know a better way.<\/p>\n
Saul\u2019s anointing was in response to the people\u2019s demands for a king. He was an impressive candidate for Israel\u2019s first king (1 Samuel 9:2). He had the people\u2019s full support in the beginning, and he began to win battles immediately. But there came a time when King Saul and his troops found themselves up against great odds in the form of the Philistine army. The men of Israel were so afraid they ran and hid in obscure places. They did not think of God\u2019s power. They only thought of their human weakness. Fear can disrupt our ability to think clearly and can lead us to disobey God\u2019s commands.<\/p>\n
The pressure from the Philistines tempted Saul to disregard God\u2019s clear command to wait for Samuel (1 Samuel 13:5-14). Saul needed God\u2019s power. He could see his defeat, and he was afraid. His fears produced impatience. He took matters out of God\u2019s hands and placed them into his own hands. He was disobedient. We have all been there. Although Saul was allowed to remain king for additional years, God eventually replaced him as king with another man who was obedient.<\/p>\n
Some people reason, \u201cI know what You said, God, but I thought….\u201d Then they proceed to do what they think is right or best. However, God didn\u2019t give us the authority to decide what was right or the option to think our way is better. We can learn from Saul\u2019s disobedience so that we don\u2019t have to experience unnecessary grief down the road. When God asks for our obedience, let\u2019s give it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Discussion Questions : What are your fears when you see difficulties and obstacles in your way? Where is your safe haven during conflict; in God or in yourself? How can impatience lead to self-sufficiency? Food for thought: We\u2019ve all heard ourselves say, \u201cI know what you said, but I thought\u2026\u201d Our spouse gave us advice, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2664,195,324,2665,2666],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}