ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 82 - 1 Samuel 11-13 (Serve the Lord with All Your Heart)
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"Then Samuel said to the people, "Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing." (1 Samuel 12:20-21)
After an astounding victory over the Ammonites, Saul is summoned by Samuel to Gilgal along with all the people of Israel in order to renew the kingdom there. It was during Samuel's address to Saul and the people at Gilgal that he spoke the words in our text above.
Samuel reminds the people of the wicked thing they did in exchanging God's direct rule with a human king to rule over them. Yet, as the father image to the nation of Israel that he was, Samuel did not fail to admonish them to serve the Lord with all their heart and to not turn aside from serving God because doing so would be going "after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing" (1 Samuel 12:21)
Samuel's admonition to the Israelites also serves as God's admonition to us today. Who among us can say that we have not sinned against God? Yet, God is telling us today, "do not turn aside from following God, but serve God with all of your heart." Whatever sin you may have committed, God wants you to repent and ask for His forgiveness, get back up on your feet and start following God henceforth.
Let us praise God today for His unfailing love and His unending mercy to forgive our sins. Let us fall on our knees before Him in humility and repentance, asking Him to forgive us our sins, and let us receive the forgiveness that He offers freely through Christ who died for us. Then, let us resolve henceforth to follow Him with all of our heart by reading His Word and obeying all of His commandments.
Let us also not fail to heed God's warning through Samuel that if we are so foolish as to turn aside from following God that we will actually be going after empty things which cannot profit us but rather will leave us with nothing. The apostle Paul referred to this very thing when He said,
"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,13each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)
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