Sunday Reading: 1 Samuel 3:4-10
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 3:9
9 And Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down; and it shall be, if One calls you, you shall say, Speak, Jehovah, for Your servant hears. And Samuel went to lie down in his place.
Devotion:
When The LORD called out to Samuel, Samuel did not yet know Him and hence did not even think about Him when he answered; instead he ran to Eli because he automatically assumed that it would be Eli who would call him. Samuel was more than ready to do his bidding, even at night time when all were trying to sleep. It is often the case that God will try to get people’s attention and they will not know that it is God but will assume some other thing is happening, something man made or controlled by man.
We should be ready, as ready as Samuel was, at all times to get up and do God’s bidding. It is not a case of we should do nothing and ignore The Lord until we hear Him call otherwise we will be so tied up in our world that we will not actually hear Him. Not because we don’t want to but because we cannot hear Him for all the noise we allow into our lives. When God calls He is not going to blast His words out through your headphones as you listen to music nor will He try and shout at you whilst you are so enthralled with the movie you are watching... God is going to wait until all is still before He tries to speak to you – and if you are not listening you will not hear.
God is not going to compete against the worldly things that you invite into your life. You are the one that has to set time aside for God in your life. You are the one who has to do the listening and not God the shouting! If you are being sidetracked by things in your life then you have to be the one to quell those things before God will be able to get through to you, not because He cannot shout loud enough but because you are the one excluding Him from your life. When we invite Christ back into our lives we should be the one who continually make a place for Him in our lives. We need to ensure that He remains comfortable in our lives so that we can continue to converse with Him daily.
Points to Ponder:
What is central in your life?
How much is God excluded from in your life?
