We once owned a Fisher-Price Corn Popper toy. When our two-year-old Jeremy rolled it across the floor, the balls inside the clear dome popped up like popcorn. But he called it his ‘lawn mower’ because that’s what he thought it looked like.
So one day he asked if he could take it in the back yard. Because it was an indoor toy, my answer was “no.”
Jeremy: No… maybe!
Me: No, not maybe.
Jeremy: No. On Sunday!
Me: No, not on Sunday.
Jeremy: No…. sometime!
He wanted what he wanted, and thought he could debate his way to the desired outcome.
King Saul once tried to persuade someone into agreeing with him as well. In I Samuel 15, God (via Samuel) told King Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, including their livestock. But Saul unilaterally decided to spare the Amalekite king, as well as the best of the livestock and anything else he deemed valuable. He tried to make excuses and appear innocent in Samuel’s eyes. But he paid a high price for his disobedience. God rejected him as king.
It’s easy for us to judge and say, “Tsk, tsk, Saul. You should have known better.” But how often do we get bent on a particular outcome, and pig-headedly pursue that without regard for God’s guidance or the principles laid out in His Word?
Do you sometimes want what you want, and nothing is going to get in the way?
Saul could easily have rationalized that he and his army had earned the spoils of battle and that it made no sense for all that perfectly good livestock to go to waste. Have you ever sensed God leading you to do something that would either have cost you something, or that did not make sense to you, so you rationalized that you must have heard wrong? “God would never ask me to do that,” you think. And yet the thought keeps nagging you. You keep arguing with it, until eventually the opportunity has passed and you give a sigh of relief.
God will not strike you dead or curse your family for generations, but when we oppose or ignore the Holy Spirit’s leading, an opportunity is missed. The path God leads us on is the path of life. Do we believe that? Many things Jesus taught about life in the kingdom defied reason. The first shall be last. He who would be greatest should be the servant of all. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. It is more blessed to give than receive. Such ideas do not compute with our desires.
We usually resist God due to fear of loss. Yet the Word say those who fear God (revere and hold Him in high esteem) will lack nothing (Psalm 34:9). The next time you feel a tug of war between your will and what you sense God is leading you to do, instead of tugging, run in the direction of the pull. He’s trying to lead you someplace good!
