Greetings in the Strong Name of Jesus!!

I Samuel 15: 3 & 13-14 - “Now go and completely destroy* the entire Amalekite nation—men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.” ... When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully. “May the Lord bless you,” he said. “I have carried out the Lord’s command!”  “Then what is all the bleating of sheep and goats and the lowing of cattle I hear?” Samuel demanded.”  NLT

Hidden Disobedience
I remember the first time I ever tried to steal something.  I was about 6 and lived in a small town.  In fact, our town was so small (how small was it?) we had only one store, one gas station, a volunteer fire department, a school and a feed mill.  One day I went to the store wanting some candy.  I had no money, but being that I was in the store a lot the owner paid little attention to me.  I decided to take advantage of that and took a package of “wax bottles” with sugar water in them.  He would never miss them, I rationalized.  I got home trying and trying to open them to enjoy the sugar water and chewing the wax, but couldn’t do it.  I felt so guilty I had to take them back and confess.  “Thou shalt not steal” was ringing in my ears.

In this passage, we find Samuel giving instruction, from the Lord, to King Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites.  These people kept leading the Children of Israel into sin.  So, God gave an order to completely destroy these evil people and spare The Children of Israel.  But some of Saul’s men decided to keep some of the best livestock for sacrifices.  They brought back the spoils to the camp.  When Samuel came to greet Saul, he heard the bleating of sheep and asked what it was all about.  Saul rationalized that his men has kept some of the best livestock for sacrifices and tried his best get around the command of the Lord to “completely” destroy these evil people and everything they owned.

The same truth is found in our lives.  Too often we hang onto things that really keep us from giving our hearts 100% to Almighty God.  We rationalize saying these things are not so bad, and why would God want me to get rid of this or that?  What hurt is it causing?  That is not the point!  The point of all this is found in the end of I Samuel 15:22; “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?  Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”  NLT

There is no room in the heart of a believer for rationalization.  We must be obedient to God.  We could offer all of our money and possessions but hang on to our disobedience and not please God.  In contrast, it is possible to hang on to all of our possessions AND give God complete obedience to please Him.  To obey or not to obey - that is the question and the choice you and I have.  Just like Saul and his men...we can rationalize and bring sacrifices out of disobedience and God is displeased, or we can bring our obedience to Him without the sacrifice and He will be well pleased.  Interesting, though, to bring everything to Him requires some sort of sacrifice - doesn’t it?

You are loved and prayed for,
Pastor Roger