TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY MARCH 21, 2016.
SERVE
Attend or wait upon; work for; to meet the needs of and subject one’s will to that of another.
You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. I Samuel 12:20.
Has it ever been your experience to feel inspired by a message you hear or by a passage of scripture you read to earnestly and eagerly want to serve God with more enthusiasm and then in a short time later your intentions are forgotten and you are back doing things your way and doing nothing to serve the Lord.
The scriptures give us many examples of the Israelites turning away from serving God on their journey to the Promised Land. They rebelled against God in order to do things their way. After the death of Joshua, they were without a leader and they lost their spiritual direction under the judges did what they wanted. They turned from obedience and serving God to disobedience and serving idols.
During these years they went through cycles of serving God and rebelling against God. The result was that when they turned from serving the Lord, God allowed them to be overrun by enemy nations. When they were in danger of total destruction they would turn in desperation back to God and then God would provide for them a God-fearing judge to deliver them.
Then the Israelites rebelled against the rule of judges and asked God for a king. Despite the many warnings from Samuel of the hardships they would have to endure under a king they continued to insist they wanted a king to rule over them like other nations around them. They forgot that the Lord their God was their King (I Samuel 12:9).
God allowed them to have their way and to choose another king even though they were rejecting God. It is hard to believe they would want a mere human to lead them instead of almighty God. Throughout history this has been the case. People have rejected God as their Lord and their King and they continue to reject Him even today.
Soon the people realized what a mistake they had made and asked Samuel for help and to pray asking God to save them. Samuel saw that they were afraid so he kept saying to them, “Do not fear” and then called on them to turn from their wicked ways and serve the Lord.
We can look at this illustration of the Children of Israel and learn that even when we do the wrong things, God does not give up on us. He wants us to repent of our disobedience and return to serving Him. When we fail to serve God we know that we cannot turn back the clock and redo what we have done wrong. We need to learn to humbly ask God for His forgiveness for our disobedience and acknowledge His faithfulness.
Serving the Lord has a direct tie to obedience. The Israelites had to become obedient to God’s will before they could serve Him. We look forward as believers to the soon return of Christ which is by far the most important reason we need to serve the Lord daily. The anticipation of this great event should overwhelm our hearts with excitement and give us a new desire and a sense of urgency to serve our Lord. Do you choose to serve Him or reject Him?
Our memory verse for this week is found in Matthew 5:6.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Thank You for the joy of the great anticipation we have as we look forward to with the soon return of Christ. Help me to never neglect to remember the importance of serving You as we anticipate this great event.
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