Wednesday Word 6.02.2021

 Thoughts on Last Sunday's Text...

1 Samuel 8:4-8

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” 6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.”

Dissatisfaction with leadership is not a new trend, as we clearly see in this passage. I get the notion that human beings tend to want a parental figure, usually male, to be in charge. People want someone they can trust, someone they can believe in, who will take control of the aspects of life that they don’t particularly want to deal with or cannot handle as individuals. They want someone they can be proud to follow and call their own. People want a protector, even if they don’t want to admit it. The difficulty arises when a fallible human being is put in that position of leadership. No matter how wonderful that leader may be, they are human. They cannot be all things to all people. They will make mistakes. It is guaranteed that they will disappoint some and enrage some. The fact remains, the leader is human. Even if the belief is that the leader was in place by divine decree, they are human. We make the mistake of putting our faith in them.

We already have someone to depend on for all the leadership we need. Almighty God has it covered! Jesus came among us to teach us how to live in this world and the Holy Spirit followed to help guide us day by day. If we all relied on God for our direction, for our comfort and our hope, including all those in authority, then the administration of our earthly realm could take on an entirely different look. Wouldn’t that be heavenly?…something to pray about.

Don't forget to look for the Lord today.

Vicki H.


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