Good morning!
Today’s devotion is taken from the daily scripture
reading: 1 Samuel 3- “The Lord Calls Samuel” and Luke 20:41-44- “Whose Son is
the Christ?”
Samuel was serving God faithfully under supervision
of Eli but have not heard from God yet. In those days, God rarely speaks to the
people because it was a time when there was hardness of heart among people of
Israel and the corruption of the priesthood. We read that Samuel did not
recognize God’s voice at first but after three times and guided by Eli, Samuel
knew it was God speaking to him and Samuel replied “Speak, for your servant listening”
(1 Samuel 10). One can listen but not willing to submit to the will of God. Samuel
was attentive to God and he was also obedient to God’s commands.
In Luke 20:41-44, the Jewish leaders were
questioning Jesus’ divinity. The Jewish leaders knew about God. They knew what
Jesus did and said and yet they did not believe in him and went against Jesus.
Jesus warned of spiritual and willful blindness of those who rejected him in
Mark 4:12:
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never
understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’[a]”
From these two stories, you will notice one crucial
difference, both knew about God but only one was attentive to God. Only one had
a personal relationship with God which resulted in salvation, faithfulness and
obedience. There are few lessons for us
to pray through in these two powerful passages:
a) It is not enough to know about God. God called us into a
personal relationship with him through the Holy Spirit who will guide us in our
daily walk with God.
b) The Jewish leaders were self righteous but Samuel was humble. We
should cultivate an attitude of humility and say “Speak, for your servant listening”
when God speaks to us through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
Let’s be like Samuel, always drawing near to God
and always being attentive to God. God promised that if we draw near to him, he
will draw near to you. I am overjoyed to be reminded that we worship a God who
desires to have a personal relationship with us and who speaks to us daily
through the Holy Spirit.
Prayer:
Father, we want to thank you loving us, for giving
us privilege to be able to call you Abba Father. We come before you in humility
because we know it is only by your grace that we are saved. Teach us to worship
you wholeheartedly and we want to submit to the Holy Spirit to guide us
everyday of our lives.
