Has there ever been a time when you partially followed an instruction because you felt that completely following through was detrimental to your well-being? For example, you were given a specific route or direction to go from point A to point B; but, you thought that the route given to you would waste gas and time, so you deviated and “made your own path,” as it were. We all know what’s like to follow the directions of a church deacon going to a retreat with crazy directions leading half-past a spotted black sheep and turning right only to turn left around a Dairy Queen somewhere in Pennsylvania. Yeah, we partially follow directions. We also follow this pattern with our parents and our doctors and our teachers, and the list goes on and on. We’ve established that we do this in one or more areas of life; but, what about in the area of God’s instructions to us? For the sake of practicality, let’s say that our conscience – the gut feeling that discerns between right and wrong, and yes and no – is a form of God’s instruction to us: do we follow these instructions completely, or just partially? The question is: do we only half-heartedly placate our conscience? And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. – 1 Samuel 15:17 God wanted total obedience from Saul when it came to matters of war. Saul thought he had better ideas than God did, when it came down to it. So he only partially took God’s instruction and said, “Well, God told me He wants nothing, but I think He should get something anyways.” This led Samuel, the prophet, to say to King Saul, “Do you have trust problem? Or maybe it’s a self-esteem issue?” When we become “little in our own eyes” we tend to selfishly think and irrationally act. We get Napoleonic Complexes that create self-sabotaging circumstances in our lives. We begin to believe God doesn’t have our best interests in mind, so we take it upon ourselves to take care of “number one.” God has anointed us. Maybe not to the place of King, but to a place in society that is important. You may not feel as important as the President of the United States, but the lives you touch on a daily basis make you an essential being in your sphere. God has put you in a place where you can be comfortably and totally you. He elevates you into a place of influence around people, and, as such, demands your obedience to Him. Not because He needs you to do something for Him because He can’t; but, because anything short of obedience to God and the place in which He puts you, is an act of rejection. It is like saying that you don’t want good things from God. Don’t become little in your eyes by not following through on directions. You’re better than that. You were created for more than that. You’re bigger than that.
