June 16

“…for we enquired not at it in the days of Saul.” 1 Chronicles 13:3

As the new leader of the people of Israel, David begins to make positive improvements to the way he and his people will behave. Among the early changes, he makes a clear difference between how he wants to lead and the way his predecessor Saul led. He includes himself with the people, and points out that the Ark of God’s Covenant with Israel has been ignored during the days of Saul, that it should be returned to Jerusalem and to its place of worship and prayer. The Ark was recognised as being the vehicle of God’s presence among the people, and a channel through which God gave them blessing, power, protection and direction. Saul had been so taken up with the constant battles against his enemies and the inner struggles of his own pride and insecurity that he had bypassed the need to enquire of the Lord, a practice which resulted in losses and costly mistakes. Such reformation as David instituted, is the kind of revival we all need in our hearts and souls. It is of the greatest importance that in all we perform, we do not forsake to enquire from the Lord. Life can become so busy with all sorts of important responsibilities, urgent tasks and unending distractions, that we can easily forget to do the most important thing of all – communicate with God! It seems unlikely that we could forget to breathe air into our lungs, drink the fluids we need or eat the food necessary for our physical strength, and yet prayer which is spiritually comparable to eating, drinking or breathing, is something we can so often put aside and not participate in. Like Saul we can be guilty of treating hearing from God, as an unnecessary or unimportant exercise and relegating it to the ‘bottom of the list’. We must instead like David, restore the place and position of prominence, God should hold in our lives. He should be at the centre of all our thoughts, desires and activities. Enquiring from the Lord, praising Him for His love, pleading for His guidance, listening for His direction and interceding for needs, should form the core around which we live every day of our lives. Having our hearts attuned to God and His Spirit, and feeding from His word every day, provides us with the necessary spiritual strength we all need to walk the Christian path and help someone else also along the way. Many of our troubles, mistakes and problems can be avoided or alleviated, if we faithfully remain conscious of God and His will for our lives, by enquiring diligently at His hand!

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