I Samuel 4:1-11. Sometimes by our actions, we attempt to use and manipulate God for our own purposes. It's as though He were the servant waiting for us to express our will so that He could jump through our hoop. There is an interesting account in the book of I Samuel chapters 2-4. In the last part of Chapter 2, we are told about the sons of Eli the high priest, that they were wicked in their morality and the way they handled the people and their sacrifices. God prophesied to Eli through the boy Samuel regarding the judgment that God would serve on the family of Eli. In Chapter 4, Israel went out to fight against the Philistines and was beaten badly. Their solution was to run to Shiloh and get the Ark of the Covenant So that they could use God to beat the Philistines. God would not be manipulated. The Ark was captured. The two sons died in battle. The wife of one of them died in childbirth and their father when he heard the news about the Ark fell over, broke his neck and died. There are a number of lessons to be learned from this account. First, that God takes sin seriously. Second, it is God who sets the agenda and the conditions, it is repentance and holiness that God is looking for and not simply a battle won. And third that He will not be used by us as a servant. It's true that in His Word He gives us many promises that He is delighted to fulfill in our lives, and He pours out far more blessings than we could ever deserve. He wants our hearts before our mouths and our actions before words. Let's get things in the proper order.

God Will Not Be Used - He is LORD!