Message: In 1 Samuel 11 Samuel was letting the people know that requesting a king for themselves was evil in God’s sight. He reminded them of all the times God rescued them from Egypt and other bad situations. He reminded them how they strayed back into rebellion each time, but each time they would call on Him He would rescue them again. Samuel told the people that although this was not God’s intended choice for them that God will do as they requested but they needed to understand that the consequences of that decision will be theirs to endure. He told the that as long as the people followed after God, their leader would too, but if the people rebelled, their king would rebel also and his rebellion would cause them anguish. As I read this I thought of all the things in life that we can choose. If we choose those things over God they have the potential to cause us harm but if we choose things under God’s order and authority he will bless them. Some of us have done things out of proper order. Relationships resulted in children born outside of marriage, or even a spouse or a job chosen outside of the timing and direction of God. This chapter reminds us that though there will likely be some difficult consequences for those decisions, but when we surrender it all to him he will bless us as we follow after him. He can’t bless sin, but he picks us up where we are and makes something beautiful out of it in spite of our past misdirection. Some beautiful things came into my life that were literally born out of choices I made outside of God’s plan and he is so gracious to bless and flourish them.
