The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” I Sam 16:1
God is always on the move.
Israel as a nation was going through one of the problematic leadership crises. King Saul had sinned against God and had disobeyed him. This not only had brought a spiritual degradation among the people, but it also brought them on their knees before the foreign powers that were harassing and humiliating them often. The people who longed for a king and lived in prosperity were now going through defeat and pain. Samuel, the prophet who had appointed the king and introduced him to the people, was very discouraged and mourning at what was happening in his world.
Samuel, the prophet who had appointed the king and introduced him to the people, was very discouraged and mourning at what was happening in his world. Do you feel the same?
Do you feel the same? Are you getting discouraged hearing the events that are unfolding around and beyond you? Or, to be more specific, are you feeling the effects of your own life choices that you have made causing some untold pain and anguish within?
In all of it, there is still hope. God spoke in the past, and He still speaks if we are willing to listen.
God told the prophet to move on from the place of his mourning as He had already moved on. God knows, and He sees everything going on in our world, but He also moves on to do new things, do the good work to bring hope, and restore us.
During a national crisis, a spiritual downfall, and a mess, God wants people with spiritual leadership and insight to move with Him to show the world what He is doing.
God is asking Samuel to get up and do his part so that God can do what He has planned. During a national crisis, a spiritual downfall, and a mess, God wants people with spiritual leadership and insight to move with Him to show the world what He is doing. He appoints as well as rejects; He also can anoint new things in us and around us.
There is something God wants to reject within us (maybe some of the behaviours that are causing a crisis within our soul or in our world), but He also is inviting us to move beyond to allow Him to anoint and inaugurate new beginnings in and through us?
Samuel listened to God, obeyed, and moved on from the place of his mourning even when he didn’t know how and where, but he trusted God.
Can we trust and listen to what He is saying?
