Confront Insecurities Prevent Sinful Actions | 1 Samuel 15:17-23

Are you sacrificing your insecurities to the Lord, or are you only bringing sins of insecurity to him? Welcome to the Daily Devo. I am Vince Miller. This week, we are in 1 Samuel 15. I've titled this chapter "The Consequences of Disobedience." Today, I am going to read a moment where Samuel is going to call King Saul out. Let's dive into 17-23: And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” — 1 Samuel 15:17-21 Saul perceives his voice and leadership as small, but his role is not small. Saul was God's anointed and appointed, and his voice and leadership mattered. God wanted to use them to lead the kingdom. Based on what we have learned about Saul, there are two internal forces within him—deep insecurity combined with opportunistic self-interest. Both come into play right here, and they are exposed when he is confronted by Samuel's "Why?" question. We all struggle with this because we all have insecurities. We have insecurities in our relationships, leadership, marriage, and career. Yet these insecurities, when unrealized and left unaddressed, can awaken devious forms of opportunistic self-interest. They result in us taking advantage because we feel we need the advantage to satisfy our insecurities. But what we think no one sees discerning people in our lives do see. In this situation, Samuel understands what Saul has done. Cattle are lowing and bleating that should have been slaughtered, but he has saved them for "sacrifice to the Lord." Then, when Saul is confronted with the "Why?" question, he does the same four things all insecure, guilty people do. Rationalize. Deflect. Blame. Explain. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMTXiJbuAVrF2hTJgnYK5qw/join Check out other all Vince Miller's videos and audios for small groups at: https://beresolute.org/ Get Vince's most widely read resources The Daily Devotional at: https://beresolute.org/mdd Check out more ALL IN products like the one Vince is wearing at: https://beresolute.org/product-category/all-in-hats/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Connect with Vince socially: FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/millervince INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/vinceleemiller LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincemiller TWITTER: https://twitter.com/vinceleemiller