I Samuel 9-12 Samuel helps us walk through failure

March 29th, I Samuel 9-12

       Most of this passage is dedicated to the story of Saul being selected King. It's a story of God's people trying to accomplish their will instead of God's. Saul hiding in the baggage and them having to drag him out to make him king. Certainly a different story than David making a name for himself by showing the courage that an entire army of soldiers could not!! That's later though.
       My inspiration today comes from Samuel's address at the end of his tenure. It starts off with a sign of thunder and rain that is proof that they never should have asked for a king. After the storm the people ask Samuel to pray for them, "that we may not die, for we have added this evil, to ask for ourselves a king." Samuel's response...

       "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself...only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart."

       What I really like about the statement is the feeling of "let's move on." A mistake was made, but let's get back to serving the Lord. We could linger in this moment of failure and try to blame people and get all worked up about the problem here. Let's say we are sorry, learn from it and move on. Our lives are the same. Moments of great faith followed by blunders that are intentional or accidental, nevertheless, how we move on from low moments will define us.
       In this Holy Week, there are some moments to remember the weight of our sin. But there is an even better moment on Easter Morning. A moment to move on, to remember that life has power over death, that our minds are to be renewed, that even though the past is real, the future can be vastly different. How do you and I move on from our failures? Samuel's got it right, and we should to!! Just keep following the Lord with all our hearts.