1 Samuel 28
Have you ever tried to reach out to God and been disappointed in not hearing back right away or the way that you were hoping to? Who did you turn to then to help you? Your friends, social media, yourself?
Saul has come to the end of his rope. He is calling out to God as the Philistines gather for war and yet God does not answer (1 Samuel 28:6). In Saul’s impatience he goes to a medium (or fortune teller) and inquires of her what is to happen. He sinfully turns away from God and seeks help elsewhere.
We serve a powerful, mighty, and ever present God. He has, is, and will always be with us. If you have placed your trust in Jesus, His Spirit dwells within you. So why was it that Saul didn’t hear from God?
Because our God is a powerful and mighty God, He gets to call the shots. It’s not up to us to decide when He speaks, how He speaks, or how He answers. There will be times when God does not answer the way we are hoping He will and there will be times when He doesn’t answer at all.
I admit, it can be really hard and even scary sometimes to call out to God for help and not receive an answer. I’ve been in this waiting period before. Waiting for God to provide financially, waiting for God to provide healing in mental unhealth, waiting for God to give an answer to my questioning after a loss. Sometimes a waiting period can be months or years; sometimes it can feel like months or years. And some things God never answers.
2 Timothy 1:7 says, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” God does not ask us to live in fear waiting for His answer but to trust in Him and that He is doing all things for our good (Romans 8:28). God knows the outcome of all things; He knows what will happen next. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” We are to trust our God, lean into Him, and be desperate for Him to move.
Continue to fight the good fight and press into trusting the Lord rather than trusting in others abilities or your own abilities (1 Timothy 1:12). People and things will fail you; you will fail yourself, but God has never and will never fail you.
We cannot blame God for the sin in our life and the brokenness in the world around us. He has provided a way for us to be restored to Him through Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection (John 14:6). If God, out of love, gave His one and only Son to us to pay the cost for our sins, then who or what can satisfy more?
What are you not trusting God in? What or who are you trusting in instead?
