Articles
Have You Convinced Yourself
The following is shared from a post by Cougan Collins.
Have you convinced yourself?
It's easy for us to convince ourselves that we are great. We can think we are smarter than others, and we might laugh at something dumb someone else did while conveniently forgetting the dumb thing we did the day before. Sometimes, we are good at convincing ourselves that we are doing what God wants us to do, but in reality, we are doing the least we can do.
King Saul is a good example of this as he convinced himself that he had done the will of God, even though it was obvious he had not.
1 Samuel 15:13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD." 14 But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" 15 And Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed." 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Be quiet! And I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night." And he said to him, "Speak on." 17 So Samuel said, "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel? 18 "Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said,`Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' 19 "Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?" 20 And Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 "But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal." 22 Then Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king."
Deep down, I think Saul knew what he did was wrong, but he was like many of us who are good at deceiving ourselves and thinking what we are doing is acceptable when it is not. Of course, King Saul had some major consequences that came from his self-denial.
However, we can have something much worse happen to us than having our kingship taken from us. If we deceive ourselves and live a lukewarm Christian life and become comfortable with it, we can find ourselves like the church Jesus spoke of.
Revelation 3:15 "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
It is difficult for us to take an honest look at our Christian lives and see a clear picture, but I hope we will learn from Saul and from the church Jesus spoke about. We must test ourselves daily and make sure we are living in such a way that will not be considered cold nor lukewarm because God wants us to be hot by doing our best to live for Him. His expectations are not out of reach because He simply wants us to do what we can. So, I hope you will think on these things.
