As we consider the battle, David’s spiritual excellence in the midst of spiritual warfare gives us an example of how we, too, can be a witness to God’s glory in the midst of opposition.
Obedience is the path to open up intimacy with God. If you are going to know Him better, you must do what He tells you to do. God teaches us this truth over and over again. Disobedience has consequences, and it leads us away from God. Obedience, on the other hand, draws us closer to Him. This is a lesson we often learn through brokenness and pain. This brokenness also teaches us to depend on God; our strength comes from Him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
David was unique among Israel’s kings. Being called a man after God’s own heart reflected not earthly perfection (he was far from that), but his real and honest relationship with God.
Ken Boa teaches on the story of a pagan widow named Ruth, who followed her mother-in-law back to her homeland and, through God’s providential plan, wound up in the bloodline of the Messiah.
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