1 Samuel 24:1-22
\nRestraint toward Saul<\/p>\n
Saul’s men returned from fighting the Philistines and pursued David once again.\u00a0 Saul took 3,000 men with him to where David was staying in En Gedi.\u00a0 When Saul unknowingly entered a cave where David was hiding with his men, David’s men saw this as an opportunity from God to deal with the enemy.\u00a0\u00a0 The men urged David to move up behind Saul and cut off a corner of his robe.<\/p>\n
This may seem innocent to us today but to cut a king’s robe could be seen as open rebellion in David’s time.\u00a0 David was troubled with guilt.\u00a0 God guided David and he was conscience-stricken of the dishonor he had shown God and Saul.\u00a0 He rebuked his men and would not allow them to attack Saul.<\/p>\n
Saul’s men and David’s men had advised each one to kill the other.\u00a0 Both groups felt they were right.\u00a0 Both sought revenge.\u00a0 Both were guilty of trying to make God’s Word fit with what they wanted.\u00a0 God guided David to repent and do the next right thing.\u00a0 David depended on God instead of taking matters into his own hands.\u00a0 God guided David to be humble before Saul.\u00a0 He used the piece of robe to show his loyalty.\u00a0 All this convicted Saul.\u00a0 Saul wept and confessed that David was more righteous than he and then returned to his home.<\/p>\n
Like David, God is guiding us to full dependence on Him.\u00a0 God’s guidance often begins with conviction of sin.\u00a0 Will we humble our self\u00a0 before God, turn from sin and ask for\u00a0 His help to do the next right thing?\u00a0 We can depend on God for the strength this will require.
\nSaul chose pride over peace with God.\u00a0 But David learned to depend on God.\u00a0 God was faithful to David.\u00a0 He gave David strength and guidance in every situation.. We too must ask God to help us depend on Him.\u00a0 Then we watch for His faithful provision of strength and guidance to show us the way through.<\/p>\n
“Surely God is my help: the LORD is the one who sustains me”\u00a0 Psalm 54:4
\n—- Mary Mauderer<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 Samuel 24:1-22 Restraint toward Saul Saul’s men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion-2019_2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4458,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions\/4458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}