God sends out Saul to attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them, not sparing one human or animal.
In Saul's perspective, he obeyed what the Lord had commanded of him. He gathered and army and wiped out the Amalekites. However, he kept the king and the best of the sheep and cattle alive.
When the word of the Lord came to Samuel, he was very distressed. Samuel knew that Saul did not carry out God's instructions completely, and so he knew God would punish Saul for this. Samuel went to Saul and told him this, and when Saul received word that the Lord rejected him as king because of his partial obedience, he mourned and grieved deeply.
This is a powerful story of OBEDIENCE and what it means for us.
Maybe the Lord has instructed you to quit a job, end a relationship, move to a new city, or something else that would dramatically change your life. It's easy to listen to Him tell us his plans for our life, but it's an entirely different feeling to actually follow his plans.
Fear.
Worry.
Sadness.
I know I struggled with these feelings for the past few months. God had specifically told me to quit my first job -- the job I've had since my senior year of high school (that's 3 1/2 years) -- before I went back to school for spring semester this year. I hesitated with the thought of actually quitting my job. I was so cultured into that place, and comfortable. I had formed friendships that would last many years after leaving. I was scared.
Then God started wrestling with me. I started sharing my situation with a few of my friends, and they were all on God's side. No one told me to keep the job. This frustrated me.
It wasn't until one night when I was praying and journaling that it finally dawned on me: I needed to let go of this job in order to step into the new and bright future God had planned before me. I couldn't cling on to it secretly and pretend that God didn't see.
And, I couldn't hang on to the job for the summer and school breaks. Because that would only be obeying the Lord partially.
See, when the Lord instructs us to do something, we need to obey Him FULLY. It isn't enough to obey Him PARTIALLY -- even if it's 99% of what He's telling us to do, and ignoring the other 1%.
There are serious consequences if we don't obey His instruction completely. For Saul, he was rejected as king. Now that's a pretty big deal when you consider he was king over all of Israel, the Lord's people.
I challenge you to examine your heart, soul and mind and where they stand when making decisions to follow the Lord's plan for you life. Do you second guess yourself, or purposely get caught in a tangle of confusion, just so you can keep yourself in a comfortable position in life?
The Christian life isn't meant to be comfortable. It's meant to be reckless, adventurous and dangerous. Because even if the next step is uncertain, God has already memorized the entire path and will lead us along without fault if we put our entire trust in Him.
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." (Prov. 19:21)
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