And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” – 1 Samuel 7:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 29, 2012): 1 Samuel 7

Sometimes I wonder if we like our backup plans a little too much. I understand the need; maybe it would be better to say that I feel the need for the back-up plan, but sometimes I wonder how many things that God has led us to that we have left undone because we could not answer the question – what happens if we fail? Is it possible that we have become addicted to the back-up plan?

I have come to believe that the church does not fail near enough. We seem to give more fear to failure than it really deserves. The truth is that we often learn more from failure then we do from success. And failure does not always mean that what we did was wrong. There are a myriad of reasons for why something does not succeed and a many lessons that need to be learned – lessons that will go unlearned if we never even try. But maybe even worse, if God is the one telling us to go and we stay, then what we are really saying is that we do not really trust God to complete what he is – our faith is too small.

Israel was a nation that was filled with back-up plans. The plans came in the form of the various gods that the people had chosen to worship. Each god brought with it a specialty – one that Israel could trust in. Under Eli, the nation had wandered away from God, began to trust other gods. There are a number of events that make us wonder how much Eli had taught them about the worship of their God. But under Samuel, they began a journey back towards the God that had brought them out of Egypt. But as the people begin to turn towards the God that called them his people, Samuel reminds them that they cannot serve him and serve their other gods as well. To truly serve God, they would have to get rid of all of their back-up plans.

There is an old saying that asserts that if it is God’s will, then it is God’s bill. If God wants it done, then God will make sure that it gets done. And if we are not the ones that will respond to his call, then he might just call someone else. Forget the back-up plan – maybe it is time to just do it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 8