MEMORISE: “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” – Psalm 50:12 (KJV)
READ: 1 Samuel 15:16-23 (KJV)
16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?
18 And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?
20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Judges 1-3
MESSAGE:
If the richest man in the world gave you $100 and then later tells you to give him the money because he needs it for something, you are likely to give him immediately because he was the one who gave you the money in the first place and you know that he can give you even much more again. This is why I am surprised when I see people who refuse to pay their tithes.
The fellow who is asking you to bring 10% is the One who gave you the 100% in the first place. He even promised you in Malachi 3:10 that if you give Him 10% of whatever He blesses you with, He will pour down a blessing so big that it would be difficult for you to contain it, yet you refuse to give Him the 10%; whose loss is it?
In Hebrews 11:17-19, the Bible says that when Abraham obeyed God by taking Isaac to the mountain to be sacrificed, it was because he got him from God in the first place and knew that if his son died, the Lord who gave Isaac to him could raise him from the dead. Abraham knew that he did not produce the boy, so offering him back to the One who produced him was not difficult. It is the same with Hannah after she had Samuel and took him back to God (1 Samuel 1:24-28).
In all the cases where God asked someone for something and the fellow obeyed, God ended up giving the fellow more than He had asked for. It is obvious then that He is not really interested in what He asked you to do, but rather in your obedience.
God is very particular about obedience; if He asks you to give your car to somebody and you refuse, but bought another car for the fellow, you would have missed the mark. He is not as interested in your sacrifices as in your obedience. 1 Samuel 15:22 says:
…Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
God’s instructions are tough sometimes, but when you think about it carefully and realise that He owns everything you have, it becomes easy to obey Him. Don’t become like King Saul who forgot his origin and ended up in disgrace – the same disgrace he was trying to avoid when he disobeyed God.
KEY POINT: When God gives you something and He says “I want to use it”, I hope you will be wise enough not to struggle with Him.
Open Heavens 2023 Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries.
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