Thursday, August 11, 2022

Why Did You Do That?

"And Samuel said, "What have you done?"  Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash,
then I said, 'The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord'  Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.
"
1 Samuel 13:11-12 (NKJV)

There are many reasons that people do things, and sometimes people do things for the right reasons, and sometimes for the wrong reasons.  Doing something for the right reason in the right way will usually bring good results, and doing things for the wrong reason usually brings bad results.  But it is possible that someone could do the right thing, but for the wrong reason, and that can lead to problems.  Whatever we do must be something that is done for the right reason and in the right way.

In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul wrote that we must walk, live, by faith not by sight.  Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  Christians are called to live a life of acting on God's Word and not on other things.  In the Old Testament, we see King Saul doing something based on his own ideas, and not following God given directions.  Saul went to battle and he was supposed to wait for Samuel to come and do the sacrifice, but Saul did it himself because of what he saw happening and what he thought might happen.

King Saul had the same problem many people have today, rather that follow God given instructions, Saul acted on his own ideas and he got into trouble.  King Saul's excuse was that he saw people leaving him and he thought that the Philistines might attack.  We can't do things based on how other people act or on what we think might happen.  We need to always go to God's Word to see what it tells us about how we should live our life, and not be moved by other things outside of the Word of God.  

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