Studying through the book of 1 Samuel, I’ve noticed a repeated pattern of David to “inquire of the Lord” when faced with decisions to make. What really resonated with me was reading through these passages and imagining me in those circumstances, I think it would have been easy to react to situations with what “felt” right in the heat of the moment. A number of these decisions came from the constant threat of being killed by the King of that time, King Saul. Saul would gather thousands of men to go search for and kill David. And when David would find out, he would “inquire of the Lord”. He would talk to God, the God of Israel and say “I pray tell your servant”.
Now if I was being hunted and feared death, I’m not sure I would take time to “inquire of the Lord”. I would either run for dear life or try to gather my own thousand men army to fight. After all, isn’t that what makes sense? I can’t tell you how many times I have been faced with decisions; ones I felt were pressing and had to be made in reactionary fashion and just made them. Not once, “inquiring of the Lord”. After all, decisions have to be made and lets get them made and move on, right. Evaluate the circumstances, figure out what makes sense, and do it.
But that is not what scripture teaches, we see even Jesus go to God in prayer before making decisions. Look in Luke 6. We see Jesus went away to pray all night before day came where He chose His twelve apostles. 12It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:…
So today, my prayer is I would slow down, and learn to “inquire of the Lord” with everything. Not just some things, not just the things I can’t figure out on my own, but also go to Him with the ones I think I have figured out on my own.
