Written by Pastor Jack Wellman“Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.”
– 1 Samuel 12:20
It’s Safer
When I was a boy, my cousins and I used to play in the woods and my brother and I were the Indians and even had moccasins, and we knew those woods so well that we could outrun and hide our other cousins. We knew where every fallen tree was, where every hole, and where every rock was at. We knew the path and it was safer and easier for us, so in our Christian faith, it is safer for us to walk in the will of God and not turn aside to the left or the right.
It’s Dependable
God would not put us in a path that would harm us (Rom 8:28), even if it looks like it to the naked eye, but faith is not faith if we can see with our eyes, but rather, faith is believing in what we don’t yet see (Heb 11:1). I can know that God exists without ever seeing Him, much as I can know there are black holes in the universe without ever having seen one up close (which I think I wouldn’t want to do).
It’s Best
When Samuel was warning Israel about the consequences of disobeying God, “Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel” (1st Sam 12:20), and then the people feared greatly and told Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king” (1st Sam 12:21) and that’s when Samuel reminded them (and us), “Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart” (1st Sam 12:20).
Conclusion
The Old Testament wasn’t just written for historical purposes but as the Apostle Paul said, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1st Cor 10:11), and of course that would be for us…and all who believe.
