You can justify pretty much anything you want to do from Scripture, but that doesn’t mean what you want to do is Scripturally justifiable! The scary thing is, all kinds of well-intentioned people will line up to give you the green light in such matters. They’ll quote scripture, point out how circumstances have aligned in just the right way, and convince you of just how reasonable and right a certain course of action might be. But the problem is, God is not in the thing you want to do. And to go ahead with your plan will move you out from under the blessing of God, at best, and at worst, lead to disaster down the road.
Tags:
devotion on I Samual 26,
Scriptural manipulation,
Spiritual justification
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Do you ever wonder where David got his courage to fight Goliath? Was he just a naturally brave warrior, experienced in battle, confident his hand-to-hand technique and just spoiling for a fight with an oversize blowhard, or was there something else? There was something else! David just knew that he knew that the same God who delivered him from every past danger would deliver him from this present and present one. God’s past performance was a surefire indicator of what was about to happen. Because God was a covenantly faithful God, how could it be any other way?
Tags:
Confident in God,
Devotion on David and Goliath,
Devotion on I Samuel 17,
Facing giants,
Meditation on courage
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Nobody really understands the pain of desiring children but not being able to have any like the barren. Hannah was a childless woman in a culture where children meant everything—a woman’s worth and desirability to her husband, her bragging rights at family gatherings, the admiration of the other women at the market, her husband’s ammunition for one-upping the other guys hanging out at the city gates, as well as a whole host of other cultural notches on the belt that came with having kids. And there was one other benefit to having children that had an even more significant meaning to married couples in Israel: eternal life. You see, through posterity, the family DNA, the family name, the family’s unending future would be carried forth in perpetuity. So in light of all that, Hannah’s grief over having no children is more than most of us could ever begin to understand—unless, of course, you have suffered the disappointment of barrenness yourself. Even her husband, Elkanah, didn’t get it. Either he was a complete dolt and didn’t get it, or he was a complete dolt who also happened to be an insensitive brute. But Elkannah wasn’t alone in this matter: Even Hannah’s pastor didn’t fare to well in the Mr. Sensitive category. He accused her of being drunk as she silently poured out her heart to the Lord. Hannah seemed all alone in her grief, and even worse, she had no hopes that things would be any different in the future. She was destined to barrenness. So what is a misunderstood, hopeless, devastated, childless woman to do? Well, here’s what Hannah did…
Tags:
Barrenness,
childlessness,
Devotion on barrenness,
Devotion on Hannah,
Devotional on I Samuel 1,
Meditation on Hannah and Samuel
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