Focusing Leaders

"How foolish!" Samuel exclaimed. "You have disobeyed the command of the LORD your God....But now your dynasty must end, for the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart."

Leaders by nature are people of action. In this scene, when Samuel comes upon Saul, he finds that Saul has gone ahead and offered sacrifices without the priest's presence, because he didn't think Samuel would show up. He was getting nervous that if he waited any longer for Samuel's arrival, he would lose his strategic advantage in the battle he was about to undertake.

Samuel's rebuke is a warning to all of us who look for strategic advantages. We need to realize that the most important strategic advantage is God's blessing, and that all other issues of timing and PR and any other kind of condition pale in comparison.

We need to put first things first, and keep our activist natures in check by first discerning what God wants of us and how to please him and obey him. We need to cultivate our hearts to be sensitive to God's leading and be at peace that he is in charge. If he asks something of us, we will not lose an advantage by obeying him; but rather will gain our greatest strength.

Lord, help me resist my anxious nature to get things done which I consider urgent, and calm myself to listen to you and understand what you consider most important for me to do.