And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If
you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the
foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him
only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 1
Samuel 7:3
When I got married, I was convinced in every word that was said in our
wedding vows. To love and cherish. To have and to hold. In sicknesses and in health. Until death do us part. All that stuff was about Loretta and me. We didn’t get there overnight. We had ups and downs, and times where family
and my own silliness pulled us apart.
But we always ended back up together.
She stood above all as the best thing that ever happened to me. I couldn’t say that back when I was going
through it with her. But now, it is crystal
clear. She is worth every fight,
argument, disappointment, and tear that we went through to get to today. And the funny thing is our love grows every
day. This is who we are, and we are
committed to making our love for each other better.
When we have a relationship with God, we are bound to a relationship
that will continue to grow and have value.
We always think of our relationship with God as at times ‘hot and cold.’ The people of Israel were in their ‘cold’
stretch, but this one lasted for twenty years!
Ouch! Samuel’s words were to help
the Israelites understand that those things that divided them from God were within
their control (FYI – Ashtoreths were idols representing the Canaanites goddess
Ashtoreth – see https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/ashtoreth/
for more details). Shortly after
following Samuel’s instruction, God defeats the Philistines when they attempted
to attack Israel. When reading the
chapter, it should serve as a reminder of our commitment to God. If we are too proud or focused on things that
detract from Him or His will for our lives, we are destined to be in the cold
stretch like Israel. However if we remove
those obstacles that could separate us from Him, we will have our great and awesome
defender who will move mountains and protect us from harm. We must ask ourselves, “Why is this so easy
to understand and yet so hard to attain?”
The commitments that we have in our lives range from ‘what shirt to
where’ to ‘do I want to be saved.’ How
difficult the commitment is to God boils down to one thing: Who are you
committed to? Are you committed to the
Lord, or are you committed to yourself?
Only you can answer that question, and it is only you who can make the
decision. Any great relationship has
struggles. Whether it gets repetitive or
we see something more exciting or new, we can get distracted. But if we focus on what matters to God, we
will always find His faithfulness reassuring and His wisdom filled with
something new.
God is constant. Yes, there will
be times where we do not make sense of what He wants from us, and we may stray
away. But whether it be for a day, a
month, or even years, He is always there.
Waiting. Loving. Saying to you as
Jesus said to disciples, “If any of you wants to be my
follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24b) Let us remove those things that inhibit our
connectivity to our one true God. What
obstacles inhibit your connection with God?
How will you focus on what God wants above what you want? My prayer is we recognize our relationship
with God, and commit to growing our love for Him each and every day.
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