JUST GIVE IT UP!!!

When God gives us instructions to get rid of something completely sometimes we wrestle with his instructions trying to justify why we didn’t completely give up what he asked us to. So what kind of things God may ask us to give up that we may struggle with? He may ask us to walk away from a relationship because he knows it’s not good for us. Instead of walking away completely from that individual we continue to associate with them only to find ourselves back into the relationship and it turns bad. We have seen relationships like that turn into domestic situations or even worse because someone couldn’t give it up completely. God might ask you to give up working for the company you work for because its practices are unethical but you wrestle with that because it produces a lot of money only to have the company fall and you lose everything because of it. God says give up that friendship because it brings no positive benefit to your life but only pain but you stay in it only causing you more hurt and pain.

Then God ask you to give up an addiction or temptation that you may struggle with and you do for a while but instead of completely separating yourself from people who may indulge in that addiction or temptation you hang around at a distance only to be drawn back into it. God says get rid of that fear because I have an assignment for you but instead of giving it up completely you allow Satan to continue to plant things in your mind and you fall to complete the assignment because of your fear.

See when God tells us to get rid of something completely it’s only for our benefit. He already knows what the outcome will be if we choose to partially follow his instructions. King Saul faced this same type of situation when God told him to completely destroy the Amalekites leaving nothing behind. King Saul decide not to follow Gods instructions completely and when he was confronted with this he tried to justify his actions never taking true responsibility. God then sent Samuel to complete the job King Saul didn’t finish. King Saul in the end suffered because of this just like we do today.

1 Samuel 15:2-3 NIV

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” (God clearly told him to destroy everything leaving nothing behind)

1 Samuel 15:8-9 NIV

8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. (He failed to destroy the king like he was instructed and kept the best of everything he could find.)

1 Samuel 15:13 NIV

13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” (He thought what he had done was good enough for God because it was for him, but it wasn’t)

1 Samuel 15:32-33 NIV

32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him in chains. And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal. (The job still had to be completed and it was).

So what can we including myself take from this? We can take that it always pays giving up completely everything that God has called us to never looking back trusting that if he said it then we will come out better in the end than if we chose not to.

As I sit here writing this I can only imagine the blessing Saul would have received if we would have destroyed the Amalekites like God instructed. My prayer today for you and myself is that when God calls us to give up something completely that we be able to do that never looking back!!!!