Fill Your Horn

Meditation
1 Samuel 16:1—The LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel?  Fill your horn with oil and go.  I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have selected a king from his sons.”
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Samuel was an unhappy prophet.  The people of Israel were not impressed with his ungodly sons and had demanded that he appoint for them a king.  This request was vile to him.  Samuel correctly recognized that God was their King and that to appoint a human monarch was to become like all the other pagan nations around them.  He warned the people that this was a bad decision. But God overruled his concerns and ordered Samuel to anoint Saul to be the nation’s first king.  Unfortunately, Saul turned away from obeying God and so the Lord rejected him and directed Samuel to anoint David, a son of Jesse, as king.

Samuel deeply grieved over Saul’s moral failings.  And why shouldn’t he?  He took responsibility for anointing him. He was depressed knowing the consequences for his countrymen of following a flawed leader.  Evidently, it was affecting his ability to function as God’s spokesman and so God intervened and said, “Enough!  Fill your horn with oil and go.”  

Too often we let failure derail us.  We allow a decision or series of events that go poorly to weigh us down with anxiety, thus corrupting our ability to serve God. Unfortunately, this concern becomes a compounding problem.  Instead of walking forward in faith, we fixate in frustration.  Perhaps if we find ourselves in prolonged mourning we need to remind ourselves that:
1. God’s love for us as His children is unconditional, eternal and undefeatable.
2. God understands our pain and He cares but not so that we can be paralyzed with anxiety.
3. God never bogs down because of problems.  Nor should we.  He moves forward.
4. God’s intent is that we discern His will and not obsess on what went wrong.

Are you overly burdened?  Listen to Jesus who said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Fill your horn with oil and go!  What is God asking you to do?  Find David and watch God bless abundantly!  
 
Inspiration
In grief the sufferer frequently declares that no one on earth can assist him.—Oswald Chambers in Baffled to Fight Better 
 
©2018 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)