REFLECTIONS

Decision Time

Disturbed by the prophecy God had revealed to him, young Samuel wondered what to do next.  Should he reveal the troubling message to Eli, his mentor; or protect Eli from hearing God’s ill-fated plan for his family?  But Samuel didn’t have much time to consider the quandary before Eli asked him what the Lord had revealed to him.  Decision time.

Samuel knew God’s plan, but what God didn’t reveal to him was how to use the information.  It’s a familiar place to find ourselves during day-to-day activities; but those decisions reach a heavier state when they concern following God’s plan for our own lives.  “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths.”

Sometimes we hear God tell us his plan for our lives; but he seldom includes specific direction for the steps to take in doing it.  It’s like He gives us a beautiful picture of what He want us to do but offers it in the form of a jigsaw puzzle with no instructions for how to put the pieces together.  Those steps we must decide for ourselves, and sometimes the choices we make are not very well thought out.

The biblical account of Samuel’s life finds most of his decisions were God directed. Most of us, however, aren’t so privileged.  Abraham and Sarah impatiently decided not to wait for the Lord to provide their promised heir.  Moses killed a man and ran away to a far country. King David took another man’s wife and then had that man killed to conceal it.  And from his training to protect God’s Law, Paul zealously persecuted Christians.  So, we pray, —guide me in your truth and teach me, / for you are God my Savior, / and my hope is in you all day long.

And through the Holy Spirit, He does.  Good and upright is the Lord; / therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. / He guides the humble in what is right / and teaches them his way. / All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful / for those who keep the demands of his covenant. (v. 8-10)

Now, if God instructs sinners in his ways, there is hope for me.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 NKJV)

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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