Distractions

Trying to fit in time to study God’s Word in today’s busy life style can be a challenge. This can be true for a new believer. As I was pulling out one of my first Bibles, yes I have saved them for over fifty-five years, I was looking at some notes I had taken as a young teenager. In Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” I placed a note in my Bible that read (renewing of your mind comes about when studying God’s Word and let those words fill our mind). As I study David’s life in light of Psalm 119 I realize that in reading I Samuel 18:14 that David behaved himself wisely and in all his ways and the Lord was with him; that David must have turned to the scriptures of his day and applied them to his life.

This was not so with Saul. In I Samuel chapter eighteen we have the story of David serving Saul as a military leader. However, the further we get into this chapter the more we see Saul’s angry and hatred for David grow. Instead of looking at David as a friend and a great leader of his army, Saul looked at David as someone who desire to take the kingdom from him. Even when it came time for Saul to give his daughter Merab to David as his wife for defeating Goliath, Saul give her to Adriel the Meholathite as his wife. Saul was hoping that David would be killed in his battles against the Philistines but this did not happen. Not only did Saul not keep God’s word; he also did not keep his own.

Saul’s serves as an example to all mankind what happens when we live our live without God. David serves as an example of those that seek to live a godly life. However, this will only come about with a renewing of the mind. And this renewing only comes about by staying daily in God’s Word. Saul represent those that have turned away from God. The more one chose to live without God the more ungodly they become. Even when they seem to do good, evil is in their heart and they usually have a hidden agenda. We see this in the way that Saul behaved around David.

So, as I close this old Bible on mine, I must remember that transformation only comes about with a renewing of the mind, and this renewal must be grounded in God’s word.