All to Him I Owe

Dr. Sam Horn recently wrote the following:

“Listening to God means learning to “see” with your ears. We often miss the point of 1 Samuel 16:7 where God explains to Samuel that He sees where we can’t — the heart. The point of the verse is not trying to get us to look past outward appearances to the inward reality of a person but rather to help us understand that we can’t see past the outward appearance. Man looks on the outward because his eyes are limited. God however is not bound by such limitation and He alone can see beyond what we can see — His eyes can penetrate where ours cannot — to the heart. Therefore, if we are going to come to proper assessments we are going to have to depend on Him since His eyes and see what ours can’t. And to get that information we are going to have to listen to His words. In other words, spiritual 20/20 vision is a matter of the ear and not the eye! And it is hard to listen to God when you are frustrated with the decisions He has made related to your life or to things you care passionately about. This chapter opens with Samuel being grieved (angry) over God’s decision to remove Saul. The narrative leads up to verse 7 by showing Samuel listening and doing what God asked him to do. However when he arrived at Jesse’s house he stopped listening and started looking. He quickly discovered that his eyes were not sufficient when it comes to choosing a king to lead God’s people! After being rescued from what could have been a disastrous mis-annointing, God speaks and Samuel listens. I can attest that it isn’t just OT Samuels that have this problem. I know at least one modern one that has it as well. In fact, I shave him every morning – well, almost every morning but that is probably more information than you want to know. As we head into a brand new year, I am praying that God will help me to use my ears and not just my eyes! We all know the difficult and painful results that happen when someone bases decisions that affect us on what they perceive instead of what is true. And if we are going to avoid doing the same ourselves, we are going to have to get good with the decisions God has made and circumstances He has allowed. It is pretty hard to listen to God when you are frustrated with Him — even if we are pretty good at hiding that frustration! Blessings to all of you in 2012!”