The "knack that you never want to come back."

I believe that all of us, have at the very least 'jumped the gun' once on God. What I mean by that is we sometimes get so caught up in our own desire, that we tend to play God and go for that desire without waiting on Him long enough; without consulting Him properly through His own, perfect, God-like timing.

In 1 Samuel 14, King Saul, just after being anointed and appointed King over Israel, 'jumps the gun' on God and in turn, becomes His own God.

Saul's son, Johnathan, caused a great commotion North of the Israelites encampment where the Philistines had a garrison, and had slaughtered twenty men with only himself and his armor bearer. When the first twenty fell, the whole Philistine garrison trembled and the ground shook with panicky footsteps. When Saul's watchmen noticed the scattering of the Philistines, Saul quickly counted heads to see whom of the Israelites was missing. When the heads were counted, sure enough, Johnathan and his armor bearer were gone. In verse 18, Saul called for the Ark of God, which meant that His first reaction to what was happening around Him was to consult God. This is good. However, in verse 19, Saul tells the priest to remove his hand (or put the ark back where it was) because of the urgency of the moment and rushes straight into battle without God's permission. He decides that listening to the voice of God would have taken too long and it would have ruined his military advantage. The problem with Saul's actions is that he didn't obey the voice of God and didn't depend on Him. Yes, Saul's first thought was to seek God's advice, but he did not go any further than that initial thought. Instead, Saul acted on his own insight and broke his commitment to obey God, He broke his dependence with God and chose independence from God; Saul was not a man after God's own heart.

The point of me writing about Saul's disobedience is to provide a biblical example of how we, as humans, have a knack for determining what's right or what's wrong in our own eyes without first asking God what His verdict is. If you recognize the prideful tendencies in your own heart, and you repent and ask God to change them, then I pray that this will be one knack in your life that will never have to come back.

Stay humble, be obedient, ask God what He desires for your life, and pursue just that.


-burton 261E