1 Samuel 4-6

I was reminded this morning how God looks for a true heart of repentance in all of us. An acknowledgment that we have been wrong (about the sins he has revealed to us personally), and to, once again, refocus our lives to the Lord our God.

The Israelites were living in sin. Even Eli, the high priest, overlooked the sins of his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. When the Israelites went to battle with the Philistines, they were losing. But this did not cause them to repent of their sins. Instead, they questioned why God brought defeat among them.

"Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord's covenant from Shilah, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies. So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God."

They were sure the ark would bring them victory, but they were eventually defeated. More like slaughtered. And the ark was captured by the Philistines.

You shared with me not too long ago that what God asks of us is never burdensome, because he will always provide the grace needed for us to do his will. It is when we go our own ways (not by ignorance, but by deliberately going against his will), that life becomes miserable. And all we need to do, when we are living in that miserable state, is to turn back to God and to repent of our ways, but we've experienced how hard that is to do. And so many times, we would do anything BUT to repent. We may read the bible (or just carry it around with us) and can go to church, both are good things, but if we don't repent, the bible is just a book, and church is just a building. Israelites thought the ark itself would save them. In the same way, a bible or church in themselves cannot bring us back to God. Only true repentance from our hearts can bring us back to God. And we know that there is no better place to be then to be walking with our God and being filled with his Spirit:)