They forsook all and followed Him

Luke 5:11 :So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

I find it so contrary to what I do when I am blessed. If I am blessed at my work or in anything, I literally forget God for a moment and enjoy the blessing. Then, I may remember to thank God but I continue to follow the blessing.

These guys- fishermen had a bad night; working without even a single catch! (Luke 5:5) But, at Jesus' word, (they took it as a command rather than a suggestion-seeing His works probably) they did the SAME procedure of letting down the nets into the deep, this time catching so much fish that their boats began to sink!!! Such catch! after a void-result night would tempt me to stay with the catch and make the most of it!

But these guys! they followed Jesus... Its like saying," wow! what a miracle!" and then ,"The catch can wait! I'm going after this person who brought it here!!" (can anyone do that?!) I always go after games first/friends first/cooking first/work first etc etc etc. and tell God can wait. Truly a pity.

Knowing the heart of God (from psalm 56 and 51)

God testifies of King David as a man after God’s own heart(God‘s testimony:
“I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will”), and the book of Psalms much of which is written by David during his various times in life-be it times of challenge or times of rejoicing; to me, is an excellent glimpse of God’s heart- which David knew of ( and God Himself testified to it :) )

I have always felt Psalms was nothing short of David’s ( and the other writers who contributed) diary entry! Psalm 56, believe it or not was written when the Philistines had “captured” David.

1.He was caught by his enemies. Thanks to God for the record of David’s “diary entries”(in modern day terminology), so many marvelous truths about the heart of God are unveiled before me. In this defeated state, David tells God :

“In God (I will praise His word),In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? ” (Verse 4)
David, who knew God, knew that all flesh had only that control over him, as much as the
Lord God gave them. Even in that hopeless captivity, he knew God is Sovereign over all flesh.

2. David tells “Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up” (verse1)

In 2 Samuel 24:14 David tells the prophet Gad “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

David knew God. He knew that God would show mercy to Him if he humbled himself whereas man was unpredictable. How I wish I would trust in the Lord at all times as David did.

Like David, say “Whenever I am afraid,I will trust in You.”

3. In the state of being a captive(we should not forget), David tells God
“When I cry out to You,Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me.”

How I wish I remember all my life that is God is FOR me and like David, I only need to be For God, stand on His side and trust Him because He is my Savior.
Be it times of salvation or times of captivity….He WILL deliver me…

He is the one who keeps our soul from death that we may walk with God in the light of the living. (v13)
Let us know very well as David knew, in the time of testing.

4. David committed a sin. He took for himself the wife of another man, and secretly had her husband killed in war. A terrible sin as it was, God punished him. But, unlike man, God forgave.

David truly repented of his sin when God exposed his sin. And in 1 Samuel 24, God forgives his sin but not without just punishment and his son through her dies.
David wrote psalm 51 when prophet Nathan(sent by God) rebukes him for his sin.

What would we do?
Here is what David, a man who knew God well, did.

1 Have mercy upon me, O God,According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,And my sin is always before me.4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak,And blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,And in sin my mother conceived me.6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

“7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.8 Make me hear joy and gladness,That the bones You have broken may rejoice.9 Hide Your face from my sins,And blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,And renew a steadfast spirit within me.11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,And sinners shall be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.15 O Lord, open my lips,And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;You do not delight in burnt offering.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. ”

David pleaded with God for salvation from his sin.. To the God of mercy. David knew that his God was the God of mercy. And his repentance was truly not in vain. Praise God..

Awe and fear of the Lord.

….What are the things we do or do not do because the Lord despises those things?

In different schools of thought, different things are permissible. That itself speaks for the man made holiness of those teachings.

But the God who made the Universe and every person, animal and thing-seen or unseen- declares Himself to be Holy and who can defy Him? He is Holy. He says anger(without a cause) in the heart is equal to murder. He sure has high standards of Holiness. He demands mercy and justice and not offering. He sure is above all other man made holy gods and schools of thoughts. He defines lusting a woman with the eye as adultery. He sure has unbeatable standards. He defends the fatherless and the widow and the oppressed. He is holy and there is none to compare with Him.

And the very fact that man-defined holiness(be it in moral science, religion or theology) is not holy at all but filthy dung is evident when compared with the “real” God’s holiness.
It is always to our advantage to ask what the God of the Universe wants before doing something.. Because like any rule in the U.S, it is best to be followed and guaranteed to be flawless. Other opinions seem to me like rules in our own home country-which can be twisted, bribed, compromised and even neglected.

So, what is the requirement of the Lord ?
The requirement of the Lord is to live with a clean heart and that requires much more than we are capable of, so we must allow God to help us. If we strive to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and with all our mind- striving to know Him, His heart, His commandments/ life-giving rules (no fines, no guilt, no accusation, no hell) God Himself will help us because He said, He who seeks will find, and we will find the work of the Maker of our heart continued …to cleanse and beautify like His Own.
And the more we know the Lord, we will see how awe-filling He is and how unworthy of His Love we are.

1 Samuel 24 : 8 onwards(to 21).
When David (before becoming king) was escaping from the then king Saul, he and his supporters hid in a cave. Saul was God’s chosen king but he had failed God and pride had led him to disobey God. God had chosen David to succeed Saul as king and Saul was after David’s life.

In the cave…
“..where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.)” (1 Samuel 24:3)
“Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’” (1 Samuel 24:4)

The men who “supported” David twisted God’s promise to David to favor their will, but this is what the man whose heart was after God did.

‘And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. ’ (1 Samuel 24:4,5)

David did NOT obey the voices of his friends even though they were the ones who supported him, who were in his favor and in favor of securing his life. Instead, when David’s conscience troubled him, he refused to do as they said. David feared God than man and did not act against his conscience.

“And he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.” So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul.” (2 Samuel 24:6-7)

David himself knew that Saul, God’s anointed king had failed God and that God had made Samuel (prophet) anoint David as king. But David did not assume God’s will and act against God’s will. For the fear of the Lord, he did not act against his conscience (something we kill and bury in our life).

After Saul gets up from the cave and goes, David follows afterward and tells Saul:
““My lord the king! …….Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? Look, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’s anointed.’ Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it. Let the LORD judge between you and me, and let the LORD avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you.”

A man who fears the Lord will not do anything against God’s will even though it seems to be correct in his eyes and in the eye of everyone else. Moreover, a man who fears the Lord will be recognized even by his adversary.

Saul who was after David’s life, responds to David’s action with this confession..
“Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. ”

Furthermore, he blesses him!
“Therefore may the LORD reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Therefore swear now to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.”

David who was running away from death, promises not to harm the one who is king.
It is not the one who has power, who is mighty before God, but the one who heeds to God’s voice, who is made mighty by God.

What does the Lord want from us ?

It is interesting to note that what God wants of us is purely intimate relationship. Like between that of a husband and wife, which is based on trust, love and giving oneself, God wants that with every soul.

“And now… what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? -Deuteronomy 10 : 12,13.

-Fearing the Lord, knowing His Might and His power to cast your soul(unlike those who kill the body) to hell for all eternity.

-Loving God, knowing He is our Perfect Father and there is none or nothing to compare with Him and His Love for us-
He offered His very own Son as the perfect sacrifice, on my and our behalf, that we who receive it may be free of sin and Judgement even on the Last day - No one other than God Himself could make a way for us, and He did. He fulfilled His Righteous requirement from me through His own Sacrifice.

No work of mine, No sacrifice I have to offer would make me Free from condemnation on the Last day, when we all will be judged for the life we lived on earth.

-These requirements to love, serve and obey God are for our own good. It is not to burden us with a list of “things to do and things not to do”. It is to lead us to that glorious relationship with God that God made man for.

Hannah's Prayer

Hannah had no children. 1 Samuel 1:10-18 records the prayer of this woman who was loved by her husband but provoked beyond endurance by his other wife.

“In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD. And she made a vow, saying, "O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…

As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine."

"Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief."

Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him."
She said, "May your servant find favor in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. ”

Hannah’s condition reminds me of times, when the absence of a physically-touchable God has made me just wonder if there is a God and feel doubtful about praying. But what a beautiful thing it is when we ask God to remove all doubt and when He does!
We all may understand what it was for Hannah to have prayed without words from her mouth and yet her heart pouring out words. She was bitter in her soul. How much God knew her condition and how honest she could be with God! She could go as she was, bitter in soul and broken in spirit and pour out her soul to the God who loves her.

And the God He is, Perfect and Passionate about us, “is near to those who call on Him” was close beside her. We can be so surely sure about this when we pray to the God of the Universe, Jehovah-maker of heaven, earth and you and me and everything visible and invisible!
Hannah’s prayer was heard and answered. It so encourages me to pray to the Unseen God with the brokenness of heart in spite of not knowing what God is doing on my behalf at that very point of time. And like Hannah, I can go forward with my face no longer downcast and my heart at rest in Him.