The only way to find what you’re looking for is to die to yourself and surrender to God. Every day, we have to decide whether we will die to ourselves and seek God, or whether we will fall prey to the temptations of the world and walk in rebellion.
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The temptation to seek after the visible and temporal rather than the invisible and eternal is not new. Looking at 1 Samuel, we see that the Israelites struggled with this temptation in regard to their rulers.
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Have you ever wished you could change the ending of a story?
First Samuel 8 recounts one of those stories we wish we could change; it is not a story that goes well. Samuel’s sons have forsaken the way of the Lord, and, as a result, the people of Israel reject them as judges. But instead of remembering God is their King, the people demand a physical, visible monarch like those of the other nations, rejecting God.
How do we hear God when He speaks? First Samuel 3 shows us a picture of God’s faithfulness to speak to us even when we have ignored Him in the past.
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First Samuel 2 contains one of the great prayers of the Bible. The prayer of a humble womangives us a picture of the honor and glory and praise due to God.
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First Samuel is a book of new beginnings, a transition from the old ways of the judges to the new ways of the kings. It begins with a story of prayer in which one childless woman, Hannah, begs God for a son. Her example teaches us key principles about presenting our prayers to God.
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“Does God have my best interests at heart?” Naomi learned that the answer to this question is always “yes”—God is working out His plan in all circumstances.
Read MoreAppearances can be deceiving. A man and a woman meeting in a secluded location after dark—an outsider may jump to immediate conclusions. But the story of Ruth shows the virtuous character of Ruth and Boaz as they seek to honor the Lord with their obedience, coming to know Him as they recognize Him at work behind the scenes.
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Ruth 2 is a cameo of God’s grace and goodness. In the midst of the wicked period of the judges, Boaz stood out as a shining light, showing God’s grace to the least, last, and lost. We too are called to be agents of light in this present darkness. We are called to have a different vision and not to be defined by the things of this world.
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The story of Ruth and Boaz takes place during the days of the judges and is a shining light amidst the darkness. It is a beautiful cameo of character, courage, and commitment, in which two people—Ruth and Boaz—sought what was right in the Lord’s eyes rather than their own.
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