"Snippets" from David
 

When People Disappoint Us

Samuel invested much in Saul as Israel’s first king. Samuel knew Saul would be king before he met Saul (1 Samuel 9:15, 16). Samuel anointed Saul to be king (1 Samuel 10:1). Samuel presented Saul to Israel (1 Samuel 10:17-27). Samuel advised Saul on numerous occasions and at times gave Saul special tasks from the Lord.

When King Saul failed miserably to follow the Lord’s instructions and had the kingdom of Israel torn from him (1 Samuel 15:24-31), Samuel was deeply grieved (1 Samuel 16:1). It takes no special insight to understand why Samuel would be broken-hearted! He presided over the transition of an Israel led by a prophet to an Israel led by a king. He envisioned the king he anointed as being a person as attentive to God as he had been. He nurtured, he encouraged, he advised. What heartbreak to make so many forms of personal investment and hope in another person and reap only disappointment!

Surely all of us understand that feeling! Who of us have not felt the pain of acute disappointment when someone we loved and invested in failed! It is possible for us to want success for someone else so much that we feel an enormous sense of loss when that person needlessly fails and wastes his/her potential for good.

Samuel had that feeling. He was so filled with it that God had to tell him, “Grief time is over! It is time to move toward success!” (1 Samuel 16:1) Certainly, it is not wrong to grieve! However, it is needlessly wasteful to conclude the human failure of someone we love means God’s objectives end. Because human failure occurs does not mean God’s work ends!

With Samuel, God in essence said, “If Saul will not obey Me, I will find a king who will. I will no longer look at externals. I will look at internals. Samuel, if you function for Me, you will focus on My values. You, as I, will not look on externals but on internals when you anoint Israel’s next king. Look at the person’s heart, not his height” (1 Samuel 16:7).

We must understand that when humans disappoint us, God’s objectives do not cease. Our goal, man or woman, must be to continually be the kind of person God can count on. There will be times we grieve, but there will never be a time when we quit. People may fail us miserably, but God never fails us.

The issue is never will God fail us. The issue is always, will we [yet again] fail God. Never make the mistake of substituting human failure for divine failure. Grieve, but never quit.
 

31 January, 2007