A Lifetime

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

A LIFETIME

1 Samuel 7:13-17

Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines. 14 The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. 15 Samuel continued as judge over Israel all the days of his life. 16 From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. 17 But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also judged Israel. And he built an altar there to the LORD.

NIV

Not much is going on in this section of Samuel except the fact that throughout the lifetime of Samuel, the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines. However, we also see that he served as judge over Israel throughout his life. Samuel was never allowed to retire from being the judge over Israel. We will see that in the last days of his life, he will appoint his sons as judges, but that still did not relieve him of his calling as judge over all of Israel. What we also ponder is that because the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines, it would mean the hand of the LORD was upon Israel, and more specifically, his hand was on Samuel, all the days of his life. This is where we take our clue for our lives. Because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, being born again, or born from above, which means born of God as a new creature, all our sins are forgiven. Because Jesus went back to sit at the right hand of the Father, he sent the Holy  Spirit to descend upon his people. This would mean that at some point in time, after or even during our conversion, the Spirit comes upon us in fire and takes up residence within us. Therefore, we can confidently believe the Lord is with us all the days of our lives. Just to think we have one of the persons of the Holy Trinity living within us. It may be difficult to understand that the Spirit can live within hundreds, thousands, even millions of people at the same time, but he is God, and nothing is impossible with God. We know from the very beginning, with the Holy Spirit first showing up when the disciples were in that upper room and all of them were baptized, and all of them declared the wonders of God in various languages they had not naturally acquired. Today, we all have gifts the Spirit has empowered us with, many of which we have not naturally acquired. The power of the Spirit working within us all the days of our lives is so that we can declare his wonders wherever we go. We have not been baptized with the Spirit to become stuffy old Christians, living without the joy of the Lord and declaring his wonders. We cannot live under the law and judgment of those who do not meet our requirements of Christianity. We are to love our Lord and love all people, even those who are opposed to us. No, our task, our calling, is to live with the power of the Spirit working in and through us all the days of our lives.