Good morning everyone!
1st Samuel Chapter 19.
When your heart is not pursuing God, you open the door to all kinds of evil.
1. Your thought life becomes evil and selfish.
2. Your behavior becomes more evil. Poor choices in life are more prevalent.
3. You're not happy or content with life.
Saul is a perfect example.
Michal, Saul's daughter and David's wife, seemed to love David, but I noticed a problem…there is an idol in their house. Really? Why? Where was the spiritual breakdown?
1. Was Michal living out what she learned from Saul as a child? That the pursuit of God with all your heart soul and mind was not necessary? That looking for answers in other places and other gods was okay?
2. If it was Michal's idol, then why did David allow it as a husband and leader of his house? Was he a great leader with armies but a poor spiritual leader at home?
I feel it is necessary that we take a close look at ourselves and see if:
1. Are we pursuing God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? And
2. Are we being the spiritual leader we are supposed to be to those whom God has put under us? Or
3. Are we compromising our faith because of selfish pleasures or desires?
I hate to keep adding things but this chapter has caused me to think about friendships and spiritual advisors.
1. Jonathan was a true friend to David and came to his aid when David's life was in trouble.
2. When David was in trouble he escaped and fled to Samuel who was a great man of God.
What kind of friend are we to those in trouble? Do we reach out or are we to self-focused?
When we are in trouble, what spiritual advisor or mentor would we go to for help? Do we have a spiritual advisor or mentor?
This was such a great reminder today of our need to draw focus to God and less focus on selfish distractions. We can’t expect to be a strong Christian when we are not plugging into the Lord and His Word.
What caught my attention was verse 9 where an evil spirit was sent from the Lord to Saul. Does God send evil spirits? I thought only Satan could do that. I believe God can harden our hearts if we continue to turn away from him over and over again. I just never thought of Him sending an evil spirit. Any thoughts?
As we saw in chapter 16 and I commented more there about the harmful spirit, we do see this happen again in chapter 19. I think that it was “from” the Lord as far as it was being allowed by God to go to Saul probably in a similar way that God gave permission to Satan to go after Job, but there were certain limitations.
It’s good to have true friends! We see in this chapter how David had people trying to protect him while Saul was trying to kill him. Saul’s own children helped to keep David safe from their father. I was reminded of a VBS song (from Son Canyon River) that I learned many years ago that is based on Proverbs 17:17.
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”