5:37 p.m. Today's project was to write my study for tomorrow's ladies Bible group at Debbie's, and I Samuel 9 is the chapter we'll be covering. Thank the Lord that He allowed me to get my remarks finished despite numerous interruptions, some consequential, others fleeting, but God overruled all of them, including two short naps, and "it's a wrap."
I have been napping a lot lately, probably due to waking up too early and fading out in a few hours. Of course it would help if I didn't stay up late reading! I always set my cellphone alarm for no more than 30 minutes, because I don't want to be the sluggard of Proverbs 6:10-11: "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep--so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man." Okay, okay, I'm up!!
Before I wrote the study, I pulled up the lesson the ladies will work on this week, corrected a few typos and made sure of the wording. In Chapter 9, the prophet Samuel is told by God to look out for a tall and handsome young man named Saul to anoint as king over Israel. Meanwhile, Saul and his servant are traveling the countryside looking for his father's lost donkeys, and lo and behold, he accidentally walks right up to the prophet!
In the introductory remarks to the lesson, I recounted the time a very impoverished single mother had been attending the home study I taught, and the Lord privately put on my heart to take her grocery shopping. So I packed up my three little ones and set out across town to her apartment building, not really having any more than a street vicinity to go on. Her phone had been disconnected, so no help there. I came to a likely-looking block of units, and there she was, sitting on the curb, with her toddlers, all of them dressed nicely, as if they were going somewhere! Can you believe it? So my kids scooted over, we loaded the family into my van, and off we went to the store. Now that was God--still working His way today, with or without giving us mortals a lot of advance notice or information. The Holy Spirit knows how to guide us!
Jesus told His disciples before He was to be crucified and resurrected back to heaven in John 14:16-18,
I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Indeed, Jesus has not left us to our own devices, which will never do anything but clash with the Spirit-filled life! He wants us to pray; take encouragement and build our faith from reading His word; and listen to His still, small voice. Believers are privileged to have the indwelling Helper who causes us to walk in joyful confidence, because Jesus said, in Hebrews 13:5,
"I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU. " Verse 6 continues,
"So we may boldly say, "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
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