Daily Devotional for Monday, July 10

Samuel's Faithfulness

“Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand,” (1 Samuel 12:3-4).

Honesty is the best policy, at least that is what we try to teach our children. But how many people do you know that do not follow this policy? We all know people that can be trusted and those that cannot be trusted. Which kind of person would you rather work with? During the time that Samuel Judged Israel, they had worked with a faithful and trustworthy person.

Even though God was not through with Samuel yet, he still seemed to struggle with the fact that Israel did not want him as a judge anymore but wanted a king instead. Samuel wanted them to tell him if he had done anything wrong, which they could not (1Samuel 12:4, 5). He could not help the fact that they wanted to go against God but could only continue as the faithful servant of God he had always been. Though he could not see it at the time, his life was being used as a testimony of a life faithful to God and to His people, much like Moses’ was, “And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after,” (Hebrews 3:5). Like Samuel, reflect on your life of faithfulness and see if you find anything and allow God to make that change in your life today so you can be trusted tomorrow. 

JUST A THOUGHT: A life of faithfulness has far reaching effects that cannot always be measured by what other people think today but by how God will use it tomorrow.

Tim Chambers