Serve Him With
All Your Heart
They said to Samuel,
"Pray to the Lord your God for us. Pray that we won't die because we asked
for a king. That was an evil thing to do. We added it to all of our other
sins."
"Don't be
afraid," Samuel replied. "It's true that you have done all of those
evil things. But don't turn away from the Lord. Serve him with all your heart.
"Don't turn away
and worship statues of gods. They are useless. They can't do you any good. They
can't save you either. They are completely useless.
"But the Lord
will be true to his great name. He won't turn his back on his people. That's
because he was pleased to make you his own people.
"I would
never sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. I'll teach you to live
in a way that is good and right.
"But be sure to
have respect for the Lord. Serve him faithfully. Do it with all your heart.
Think about the great things he has done for you. But don't be stubborn. Don't
continue to do what is evil. If you do, both you and your king will be swept
away."
1 Samuel
12:19-25
The ancient
Israelites gathered at Gilgal for the coronation of Saul as their first king.
The Lord was not pleased that His people had asked for a king. God is King, not
some mere mortal.
We are God’s own
special people, and if we have trusted Jesus as Savior we will not be forsaken.
He knows we will fail Him. He knows what we are like – weak, sinful, and frail. He knew this before He called us and drew us to
Himself. The certainly of our salvation rests not in
ourselves but on the character of God.
The Lord will not
forsake His own.
We can rest assured.
What God saves, He keeps – for the sake of His great name!
Lives
rooted in God’s unchanging grace can never be uprooted.
Our Daily Bread –