God says: Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Psalm 81:10
When you see a promise of God, you are immediately confronted with a choice:
To believe it or not to believe it.
To act on it or not to.
How to act on it.
When to act on it.
Where to act on it.
But perhaps most important is the basic choice:
To receive what God promised or not to, to be willing to receive … or to be unwilling.
For God will not force you to trust Him or to experience all that He has for you.
You must choose to receive.
In the Bible, some chose not to receive!
Saul had not been king of Israel for long when the Philistines invaded Israel. He’d just ascended the throne a year before, so he was really in need of something dramatic to seal the kingdom a his own. That chance came with the Philistines’ invasion. Saul ordered up 3,000 special troops, left 1,000 of them with his son Jonathan, and set out for Gilgal. After Jonathan and his troops scored a victory for Israel, the people got excited and came to join Saul at Gilgal to go to war.
But what Israel met at Gilgal was a huge, swamping host of Philistines, some 3,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and so many soldiers that “they were as thick as sand along the seashore.”
Saul’s army panicked and most of them left the battle-field, so Saul was left with 600 men against an enemy like the sand of the sea. It was time for a choice, and Saul made the wrong one.
The prophet Samuel had told Saul specifically to wait for his arrival so that Samuel could offer sacrifices to the Lord for Saul’s victory. But the Philistines looked ready for battle, Saul saw his army slipping away, and Samuel didn’t show up in the seven days he’d said he would, so Saul chose to go ahead and offer the sacrifices himself.
It was a costly choice. Samuel came on the scene just as Saul was finishing the sacrifices. “You fool!” Samuel exclaimed. “You have disobeyed the commandment of the Lord your God. He was planning to make you and your descendants kings of Israel forever, but now your dynasty must end; for the Lord wants a man who will obey Him.” (1 Samuel 13:13-14)
The kingship didn’t end that day, but it did end for Saul.
Saul died in dishonor and disgrace, and the eternal throne of Israel went to David. God had been ready to bestow on Saul a kingdom that would last forever, but Saul chose not to receive it.
David became the one after God’s own heart, not because God was kinder to him, but because he chose to allow God to work on his behalf.
That’s all that God asked of Saul, but Saul refused and chose to try to take care of himself.
Some did receive
David got the chance to let God help him defeat Goliath because, quietly alone in the hills before, he’d chosen to receive God’s help with a bear and a lion.
In 1 Kings 17, God sent Elijah to a widow of Zarephath who chose to let God supply her needs.
1 Kings 17:10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.
15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.
11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.
15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.
God won’t force you to receive from Him, but if you do choose to receive, you can expect the resources of heaven to be available to you.
Bibloscope 