BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR

"And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years" Acts 13:21

One of my friends said it yesterday. I had heard it before. I have said it before. "You had better be careful what you ask for (in prayer), you might get it."

Indeed, that is exactly what happened to Israel. All the other nations had kings. Israel had an old prophet. All the other countries had national leaders. Israel had a high priest. Israel asked the aging prophet for a king. They wanted to be like other nations. They wanted a figure they could look to for protection. They wanted a king. (If you remember, Moses said this time would come. He prophesied that they would want a king. He also said that king would lead them in wrong paths.)

So God gave them a king. Saul. He reigned for forty years. He was an imposing figure, head and shoulders taller than his countrymen. He was strong.  He was promoted to king of all Israel -- and he was a failure.

As time passed, Israel began to see that their king was just a man with all of man's weaknesses. He may have been strong as an ox, but he was as weak as a hollow tree in spirit. He lacked the mental strength to be a powerful leader. He became overwhelmed with his own authority -- his own ambition. And he fell. And he almost took Israel with him.

We have all been in Israel's position. We want what we want and we want it now!  
Not only do we want it, but we demand that God provide it. 
We don't want to wait for it. 
We don't want to pay the price for it. 
We don't want to save for it. 
We want it -- NOW! 
And God had better come through because if He doesn't we will do it ourselves.

And we pay the price. 
And that price is much higher than the cost of the thing we want. 

It is a spiritual price that goes far beyond a few dollars. It saps the soul of strength. It drains the spirit of energy. It taps the resources we have reserved for God's mission, and we suffer for it. We are in pain. We are weakened. Because of our weakness, others begin to suffer with us. We no longer have the spiritual fortitude to help our brother or our sister. Instead we are pulling from them the strength they need for their own battles.

A downward spiral has begun. The trail of smoke can be seen for miles around. Doom and defeat seem eminent. But wait. Inside that hulk of a dying body is a pilot -- no, The Pilot. He has not bailed out yet. He has not given up the ship. He is pulling. He is fighting the battle for us. And He has the strength to pull us out of that fatal nosedive we have forced upon ourselves. At the last moment, the flaming hulk of our life is saved and set on a path to recovery. Not because of our strength, but because of the authority of the One who knows how to save the dying.

Israel had his David. We have our Jesus. Both are redeemers. David saved a dying nation. Jesus saves a dying soul. Behold, your redemption draws near. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.