Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Samuel – When patience runs out!

1Samuel 13v13 “You have acted foolishly,” Samuel said, “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.”

How do you respond to a rebuke? A rebuke hurts the pride in us. Our pride likes to think we know best. One of Solomon’s proverbs is, “Whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse … rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” (Proverbs 9v8-9) May we be wise people who accept rebukes and change!

I feel a bit sorry for Saul. He had started well, but he now faced the Philistines in battle, and Israel was outnumbered and out-tech’ed. Saul’s men were “quaking with fear” – many hid and many others escaped to safer ground. Good old Saul had followed Samuel’s instructions and waited 7 days for Samuel to arrive and offer sacrifices to seek God’s favour. But Samuel had not turned up, and the longer he waited, the less men he had. So Saul did what he was not authorised to do and offered the sacrifice himself.

As a consequence, Samuel said, ‘You have acted foolishly, you have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.’” His kingdom would now be handed over to someone else who was “after God’s own heart”.

Saul was not patient enough to wait for God and his prophet, and so he was rebuked by God through his prophet Samuel. Saul offered his excuses, but they did not excuse his disobedience. It was now too late to exercise patience and trust God.

Where is God calling me to be patient today? Am I prepared to wait for God or am I going to act in my own way?

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Samuel – Popular opinion or God’s!

1Samuel 12v14 “If both you and the king who reigns over you, follow the LORD your God – good.”

Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” We know that the majority isn’t always right, and trying to please people doesn’t always lead to wise decisions.

Samuel understood this well. He faced strong public opinion but continued to seek God’s guidance — and he urged the people to do the same.

The Israelites had demanded a king, and God allowed it. Their new king, Saul, had just won a major battle, and everyone was thrilled. They celebrated and placed their trust in him. But this was the problem — their confidence was in the king, not in God.

It’s easy to make the same mistake. We often measure success by comparing ourselves to others. Or we measure by how things look on the outside. Or we measure by the initial results. God’s idea of success often looks very different from the world’s idea. True success doesn’t come from our achievements — it comes from trusting and depending on God. Sometimes the fruit of our faithfulness won’t be visible until eternity, but one day we’ll see the full picture of what God has done through us.

May God help you keep the eyes of your heart fixed on Him — the true source of success.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

“Chosen to be Holy and Blameless”

Ephesians 1v4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (NIV)

This verse is full of deep truths that are well worth meditating on:

• God the Father chose you and I. That is amazing. Not because of anything we have done, but he chose us “in Christ”: we could only be chosen because of Jesus’s work on the cross. That’s Biblical ‘grace’ – favour without merit.
• God the Father made this decision long before we were born, long before humans even thought of us, even before the world was created. Yes, you and I are part of God’s plan for the world. We are not an afterthought, but a fore-thought!
• God the Father chose us for a purpose: so that we would be holy and blameless in his sight. Firstly, notice that we are in the sight of God: he sees everything about you, warts and all, and he loves you and has chosen you. Secondly, his choosing is for us to be holy and blameless. This holy and blameless means both the forgiveness of sin, but also the work of the Holy Spirit in us as he makes us more holy. This is core to the New Testament message – you and I have been made saints in Jesus Christ, so that we can now live as one. It is the reason you and I are chosen.

May God fill you with that assurance of his love and purpose for you,

With love and blessing,

Roland