Stand Still

I LOVE today's passage - 1 Samuel 12 - so many gems in it. There are 3 things I want to mention....

First off I want to mention this verse... basically the Israelites have complained and asked for a King like the other nations.  Samuel is a bit like 'why do you need a King when you have God?'  In fact he actually says in v 12 - 'you (the Israelites) said to me "No, we want a King to rule over us" - even though the Lord your God was your King'.  How often do we play down the Lordship and authority of God?  How often do we think 'right I'll just do this in my own strength' or 'my own way'.  How much easier would things be if we actually acknowledged God's greatness and power.  Do we fully rely on this and expect big things from it?  Or do we dumb His power down and rely on ourselves too much?

So I want to ask...

How big is your God?  Are you too reliant on worldly things or on others rather than presenting your requests to God?  Sometimes we definitely need to rely on the Lordship, authority, wisdom, greatness and power of God first, rather than as a last resort!


Secondly, I LOVE this verse...
v16 'Now then, stand still and see thegreat thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!'

I presume that now the Israelites have confessed their sins, left behind their idols and now realised their need to rely on God's power, that God is going to bless them.  So my first question is - does our disobedience and self-reliance prevent God from moving in power?  However, what strikes me more about this passage is the fact that Samuel specifically tells the Israelites to 'stand still' long enough for them to SEE the great things the Lord is about to do.  So often we do all of this 'stuff' for God, and God is about to do something GREAT with it, but we are so stressed, so busy, so used to this fast-paced, high flying, rapid-moving life style and onto the next thing that we don't even hang around long enough to see God blessing our lives and our work.  Oh my goodness - we neeeeeeeed to be STILL before the Lord, to take time out to look and watch what He is doing, to see the miracles He is performing!  I think God is gracious to do miracles whether we look or not, and I am not saying God is a performer to be watched, but why should He act if we are not going to pay attention anyway?

Just the other day I looked out of the window and sat still for a minute.  How green the grass was.  How beautiful was the tree infront of my window.  How awesome was the rain splattering on the ground.  How beautiful were the blackbirds playing together in the garden.  And how often do I miss this because I am so busy and do not take the time to be STILL for long enough to notice!

Finally, this verse tooooooootally humbled me and blew me away this morning.

1 Samuel 12v23
'As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you'

Woah.  I didn't realise it was a sin not to pray for people.  My goodness.  This totally spoke volumes to me this morning, and I realised just how much more I should pray for others.  What about you?  What differences could we make if we all took the time to pray some more - just 2 minutes a day for someone?  It is listed as a failure!  I do not want to fail someone by not praying.  Come on, let's love through prayer this week.

Challenging stuff.  But so exciting at the same time. I hope you are blessed :)