Richard Roberts
One of the saddest passages to me in the entire Bible is found in 1 Samuel 15. The prophet Samuel had gone to King Saul and given him the word of the Lord that Saul was to go to the city of Amalek and destroy every living thing ― animals, people, everything!
But Saul went and destroyed “almost everything”, saying “I’ve done all that the Lord commanded me to do,” Samuel replied, “Then why do I hear the sound of oxen and sheep?” Saul said, “I brought these back to sacrifice to God.” And Samuel said, “Obedience is better than sacrifice. Your rebellion is as much a sin as witchcraft, and your stubbornness as much a sin as idolatry.”
Those are hard words in the Bible. But, oh… how true! I know from personal experience what it means to be out of obedience. I ran from God as a teenager and didn’t want anything to do with the Gospel. I had my own plans and I soon discovered that disobedience has no reward from God.
The good news, though, of God’s Word is that when you disobey ― when you have done part, or even NOTHING, of what you know God has said to do ― you can repent. You can pray as King David prayed, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Forgive me; cleanse me. Create in me a new heart.”
Are you struggling today and feel you have “missed it” with God? The Bible promises if you confess your sins, God is faithful to forgive you and to cleanse you from anything that is not right in His eyes! (See 1 John 1:9.)