"There's no time to mope"

1 Samuel 16:1-3
1 God addressed Samuel: "So, how long are you going to mope over Saul? You know I've rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your flask with anointing oil and get going. I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I've spotted the very king I want among his sons." 2-3 "I can't do that," said Samuel. "Saul will hear about it and kill me." God said, "Take a heifer with you and announce, 'I've come to lead you in worship of God, with this heifer as a sacrifice.' Make sure Jesse gets invited. I'll let you know what to do next. I'll point out the one you are to anoint."

Have you ever made a choice that you instantly wish you could take back?

There are times that we make a choice to do something or say something that is not necessarily the best. Sometimes, when I do that, I can beat myself up and really get frustrated about what I did or said. The problem when we do this is we feed negative thoughts and attitudes which feeds negative actions and continues the cycle of negativity. Samuel the prophet experiences something very similar to this. First, let's take a look at what is motivating this in Samuel. In the early part of the book of 1 Samuel the way God worked was anointing a prophet to lead the people. The prophet would lead as a PROXY (stand in) for God-Himself. However, the people wanted to have a king and be like all the other nations. They kept asking Samuel for a King and he got really frustrated. God essentially told Samuel "cool your heels, they aren't rejecting you, they are rejecting me... There's a guy I want you to make King, his name is Saul." So Saul, who at the outset, looked like he would be an amazing King, made a couple of brash decisions and in one particular are just point blank messed up. God told Samuel and Saul to wipe out the Amalekites. God had asked him to kill everyone, burn everything, and not allow anything to live. God was serious about wanting the Amalekites and all they had touched destroyed. Selah When they got their, the Army generals and commanders were unwilling to completely destroy everything. In the process, they convinced Saul to let the king and the best things be spared as a "offering for God." Saul comes back, thinking he did a good job, but knowing that he did not obey. Samuel confronts him and Saul tells him that "he has carried out the Lord's command." Samuel at this point says, "then why do I hear moo cows?" He goes on to tell Saul that God prefers obedience to sacrifice and that he is being rejected by God because he rejected obedience to God as a viable option. Selah At this point, Samuel is feeling like a failure, he hired this new king, he was God's mouth piece and he couldn't even keep the king from screwing up God's simple command of "kill everything." One could assume, he was thinking that and similar things. He had seen the supernatural and God's power had been manifest in him more times than he could count. Yet he couldn't stop this? This negativity turned into moping and as we see in the scripture above, God sets Samuel right. No matter what we do in our lives, no matter how many times we mess up, there is a time to get back up and repent. After we have repented, we need to stop dwelling on it. When God tells Samuel to "fill his horn with oil" (v. 1 NIV) and go out to find the next King, it is a symbolic gesture that shows us the need to move on. I encourage you today, no matter what you have done, you can find forgiveness at the foot of the cross of our precious Savior, Jesus, today. Once you have repented, get up, fill your horn with the oil of self-forgiveness and Holy Spirit anointing (signified by the oil) and move on to the plans God has for you. Selah...

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