Monday May 19th, 2025
« If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it »
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak on.”
17 So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?
18 Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’
19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22 So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”
If the richest man in the world gave you $100 and then later tells you to give him the money because he needs it for something,
you are likely to give him immediately because he was the one who gave you the money in the first place and you know that he can give you even much more again.
This is why I am surprised when I see people who refuse to pay their tithes.
The fellow who is asking you to bring 10% is the One who gave you the 100% in the first place.
He even promised you in Malachi 3:10 that if you give Him 10% of whatever He blesses you with,
He will pour down a blessing so big that it would be difficult for you to contain it,
yet you refuse to give Him the 10%; whose loss is it ?
In Hebrews 11:17-19, the Bible says that when Abraham obeyed God by taking Isaac to the mountain to be sacrificed,
it was because he got him from God in the first place and knew that if his son died,
the Lord who gave Isaac to him could raise him from the dead.
Abraham knew that he did not produce the boy, so offering him back to the One who produced him was not difficult.
It is the same with Hannah after she had Samuel and took him back to God 1 Samuel 1:24-28.
In all the cases where God asked someone for something and the individual obeyed,
God ended up giving the person more than He had asked for.
It is obvious then that He is not really interested in what He asked you to do,
but rather in your obedience.
God is very particular about obedience ;
if He asks you to give your car to somebody and you refuse, but bought another car for the fellow,
you would have missed the mark.
He is not as interested in your sacrifices as in your obedience.
« “Tell me,” Samuel said. “Does the LORD really want sacrifices and offerings? No! He doesn’t want your sacrifices. He wants you to obey Him »
God’s instructions are tough sometimes, but when you think about it carefully and realize that He owns everything you have, it becomes easy to obey Him.
Don’t become like King Saul who forgot his origin and ended up in disgrace –
the same disgrace he was trying to avoid when he disobeyed God.
Application – When God gives you something and He says “I want to use it”, I hope you will be wise enough not to struggle with Him.
Author – Bishop Enoch Adejare Adeboye; General Overseer of the RCCG
Posted by Naomie Joseph
Praise and worship session – Evangelist Jemps Benoit ; Minister Paola Médi
♥ Sharing is caring, please share this devotion, and the Lord will bless you for it ♥
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