These are fitting words for us as well.  God would have us to stop, waiting to understand His will for us as He reveals it to us by His Word.  He would have us to “stand.”  Standing in the position of alertness, of readiness, of vitality.  Elijah stood before the Lord ever ready to come or go at His bidding.  So we ought also to stand.  The Lord would have us to “stand still.”  Constant “fidgeting,” fretting, and fuming debilitate our concentration.  A calm, composed stillness, where the heart is “like a weaned child” is the preparation necessary before we receive God’s message.

Our God would also have us alone.  The servant passed on, the potential monarch must receive this message in the solitary place.  If we want to receive God’s message we must meet with Him alone.  The Master would have us wait until He speaks, and then wait to receive the whole message. This will take “a while.”  We cannot rush in and out of His presence and expect to understand His will.  We must wait “a while.”

Then God also would have us do all these things mentioned previously for a purpose.  That purpose is “that (He) may shew (us) the Word of God.”  God reveals His will through His Word.  Do you want to know the will of God for you in some matter?  Listen to the words of Samuel to Saul, and take them for yourself:  “Stand thou still a while what (He) may shew thee the Word of God.”

Where the Bush is Burning
Tomm Tice

God is not man’s debtor.  We very often think of that concept in connection with our giving of tithes and offerings.  We ought not to confine it to that area alone, however.  While it is true that God is no man’s debtor in the monetary realm, it is true in every way.  In speaking to Eli through the mouth of the man of God sent to denounce the wickedness of that High Priest who refused to address the perversity of his sons, God makes a pithy point which is worthy of our memorization and meditation.  He says, “for those that honor Me I will honor.”  Here God certifies His promise to honor those who honor Him.  He will repay that honor in full.  We ought to consider the fact that God is due His honor, and that for several reasons.  We owe Him honor as our Ruler, for He is our King in whose domain we reside.  We owe Him honor as our Judge, for it is to Him we must give account of ourselves and submit to His judgement.  We owe Him honor as our Redeemer, for He has purchased us with the precious blood of Christ.  We owe Him honor as our Father, for He has adopted us into His family, making us His heirs.

There is the fact implied here that we can honor God.  There are ways in which we can do that. We honor Him by believing Him and in Him, by obeying His Word, by loving Him, by worshipping Him, by reverencing Him.  The methods of accomplishing these things He sets forth in the Scriptures, and enables them by His Holy Spirit to perform them.  Having done all that is necessary for us to honor Him, He then goes on to honor us.  He honors us with acceptance on the merits of Christ, with guidance through His Word, with the sense of His presence, with His approval of “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” and with promotion in grace to the final estate of glory.  How much better could our situation be?  What a privilege we have, to honor the God of Grace and to be honored by Him.  Any honor we give to Him, He more than repays.  It is a wonder beyond what we could ask or think.

Where the Bush is Burning
Tomm Tice

 

The first sixteen verses of 1 Samuel paint for us a pathetic picture of Hannah.  In a few bold strokes they depict for us a very devout soul under many sore trials.  In His providence God permitted Hannah to endure all those trials before He ever answered her prayers and gave her Samuel as her son.

Like Hannah, we very often have to endure great trials before we receive the answers to our prayers.  Let us examine her trials to see if they strike a familiar chord with us.  Her first trial was her lack of children.  It was a natural, noble, and understandable desire that she had; yet she was barren, and that by God’s intention, according to verse 6.  You may have a desire, not necessarily for children, but for something else.  It may be a legitimate, worthwhile desire; yet God, for His own purposes, may be withholding it from you for a time.  Hannah also endured the trial of her competitor’s taunting. Peninah’s name means either “pearl” or “coral.”  She was certainly no gem and had all the abrasive cutting qualities of coral.  Her perpetual carping and sniping would have been a great hardship for Hannah to endure.  Perhaps you are, like Hannah, now suffering under the barbs of such an adversary.  Hannah also endure the trial of a long wait.  Her condition continued “year by year.”  So also you may have to wait for many years to see the answer to your prayers.  Not the least of Hannah’s trials was the difficulty of her husband’s lack of wit.  Nothing could be better to Hannah than ten sons except she had a son herself.  Sometimes we find ourselves the recipients of very cold comfort from those who ought to know better.  The last of her trials was the misunderstanding she suffered at the hands of her spiritual leader.  Eli totally misread the scene before him in the tabernacle.

We look at Hannah as the blessed mother of Samuel, a joy to any mother’s heart.  We want to realize how God used those trials to mold her character before He ever answered her prayer.  To her it could apply, “But the God of all grace, Who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.”  Before you give up under great trial, remember that there is a great triumph coming.

Where the Bush Burns
Tomm Tice