Trusting in Worldly Strength: King Saul’s Downfall

0:01 Welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast, and I'm your host, Connie Morris, and today we're diving into another powerful topic in our series, the games we play with God. This episode is titled, Trusting in Worldly Strength. It's so easy to rely on our abilities, resources, or connections when challenges arise, but But trusting in worldly strength instead of God's power often leads to disappointment, frustration, and missed opportunities and missed blessings. Today we're going to look at the story of King Saul, who repeatedly trusted in his own understanding and worldly strategies instead of God's commands.

0:51 If you've ever been tempted to take matters into your own hands, this episode will speak directly to you. So let's talk about this one. Our story today starts from 1 Samuel 15, verses 1 through 23. And for the sake of time, I won't read all the scriptures, so I'll give you a summation. You know, so Saul was given a clear command from God through the prophet Samuel was to eradicate the Amalekites, leaving nothing behind. But Saul disobeyed, sparing the king and keeping the best of the livestock.

1:35 And so let's see in 1 Samuel 15, 19, it reads, but Samuel said, why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the sight of the Lord? So here, Saul was given a clear command from God through Samuel to kill everybody, including the livestock. But Saul, the king, took it upon his own to decide to spare the best of the livestock and to keep the king. So Saul's justification of his actions by saying he intended to use the livestock as a sacrifice to God.

2:18 But Samuel responded with a powerful truth. So many times this is another form of disobedience, right? God gives you a command and you find 101 reasons. They probably are the best reasons that you could think of why you didn't follow through on what he asked you to do. but this is what. Was said by Samuel, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. So Saul thought it was cool just to say, I was going to sacrifice this to the Lord. Ooh, how many times you heard that one? I was going to sacrifice this to the Lord.

3:03 I'm playing the lottery because I'm going to give some of this money to the church, And then when they win, you can't even find them. I don't think they even found the church. You know, so, yeah. So Saul's decision to rely on worldly wisdom, which is easy to find, that seems logical at the moment, led to his rejection as king. So he was king. He was asked by God through the prophet to do one thing. So can you just do that one thing? And God knows the heart of man, so he knew Saul wasn't going to obey.

3:45 But can you do that one thing? And Saul could not do that one thing. And then he used worldly wisdom and gave himself a quote to say, so Saul decided not to do it. So he trusted in worldly wisdom and often led to disobedience and spiritual consequences. Remember, when we disobey God, there are consequences. Sometimes we think there's not, but there are consequences. So are there areas in your life where you are relying on your own strength instead of trusting in God?

4:29 Lionel, I'll just say it's trusting in God. Why do we trust in worldly strength? For many of us, it's about control. We feel safer when we can see, touch, or manipulate the outcome. But the mindset often reveals a lack of trust in God's sovereignty. Wow. So why do we trust in the worldly strength? Because we can see it, we can feel it, and we can probably try to manipulate the outcome. And Psalms 20 verse 7 says it best. It says, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

5:14 Worldly strength might look impressive, but it's not compared to the power of God. So let's go back to Saul. Saul had one thing to do. So I decided to use his own wisdom. His wisdom was like, you know, why kill everybody? Why even kill the king? Let's keep the best. Let's keep the king. And we're going to save this good lifestyle. We're going to sacrifice it to the Lord. So we make it sound really holy, like it's really powerful. But did God ask you to do that thing? And so we have to wonder, like, is it our idea or is it God's idea? What did he tell you to do?

5:57 What did he tell you to do? So worldly strength might look impressive, but it's not compared to the power of God. So let's see how we can fix this up, right? So what are the consequences? We're always talking about the consequences of trusting in worldly strength. So our reliance on its own wisdom have far-reaching consequences. You know, yeah, it sounds like really good at the time. Your worldly wisdom sounds good at the time. But what are the consequences when you use worldly wisdom over God's wisdom? Number one, loss of God's favor.

6:39 Saul's disobedience caused God to reject him as king, a position that was meant to be blessed and sustained by divine favor. How powerful is that? Number two, spiritual blindness. When we trust in worldly strength, we often fail to see how God is working in the situation. And number three, miss blessings. Saul actions forfeited the opportunity for his lineage to continue on the throne, a blessing that could have been his. I just want to slow this down a bit. Saul had the full instruction. Sure.

7:23 Now, we talk about delayed disobedience is disobedience. What about partial obedience? Partial obedience is still disobedience. And so we see here that when Saul had partial disobedience, it's just like he didn't obey the rule. Kill everybody, kill everything, and he kills only what he thought was appropriate. So he lost favor with God. And so he was rejected from God. We don't want that, do we? Spiritual blindness. And so when we have spiritual blindness, we trust in worldly strength, worldly power, even worldly leaders.

8:07 And we often fail to see God working. What was God's plan behind the scene? We won't know if we're thinking about our way. And then Miss Blessing. Saul missed opportunity for his lineage to continue on the throne, so he missed a blessing. Jeremiah 17, 5 says the best. It says, Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh, whose heart turns away from God. Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh, whose hearts turn away from God. So trust is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh, whose hearts turn away from God.

8:56 Trusting in man and trusting in your own flesh. When we place our trust in the world instead of God, we cut ourselves off from the blessings he wants to pour into our lives. So how do we turn this around? How do we break this habit of trusting in worldly strength? God keeps calling it a habit, right? He calls it the games we play, but then he calls it a habit. How do we break this habit? Number one, we acknowledge our limitation. Recognize that your strength is limited, but God's power is limitless. Recognize that your strength is limited, but God's power is limitless.

9:41 So when we trust in the world's power, we limit ourselves to what the world knows. And according to 1 Corinthians 12, God says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. So you limit yourself when you trust in the world's way. But God's power is limitless. Number two, seek God's guidance first. Before making decisions, pray and seek God's wisdom through his word. Proverbs 3, 6 reads, In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your path straight. So seek his guidance first. And finally, number three, celebrate God's faithfulness.

10:27 Look back on times when God came through for you, even when you couldn't see a way forward. The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in him and he helps me. Psalms 28.7. So how do you break free from the habit of trusting in worldly wisdom? Acknowledge your limitations. Seek God's guidance first and celebrate God's faithfulness. And so, for instance, for Saul and then for us too, God asks you to do a hard thing. Lord, do this? All this? You sure? We're not negotiating with him. We're like, just confirming.

11:09 You go do it, right? So he's going to say yes, yes, and yes. You go do it. And so you acknowledge, this is a lot. I just want to make sure that you want, I want to make sure I get this right. You want me to kill everybody here. Okay, got it. All right. And last time I did this, then you gave me this. I'm looking forward to see what you have for me when I do this, right? And so I'm being able to know that through the prophet, Saul was supposed to do one thing. But in his own worldly wisdom, he did his own thing. So we have to be careful of that, that we don't do our own thing because we want to, like, I don't know.

11:52 Are we trying to impress God? Are we just trying to be God? Or we want to kind of control the outcome? I don't know. But long story short, the guy who he kept showed up again, part of that family generation, showed up again in the book of, man, I can't think of it right now. the book of Esther. Yeah, the book of Esther. And so we don't, God knows the future, so we don't take care of things. He's trying to get rid of the root of the problem, and we just don't understand his whole story. Maybe because he's not telling us, or we don't ask, or we just want to do our own thing, that we keep kind of some junk keep going, growing, and growing, and growing.

12:41 You way in our families, too. You know, I won't go into all that, but God might be telling you to do something even in your families, but you only do it halfway, and yet that root grows up out of a grandchild, and then you don't do what he tells you to do, and you keep seeing that same root grow up. So just acknowledge your limitations. Seek God's guidance. He's trying to clean up your family, too. You know, he's trying to clean up you and everything. Just be obedient. Be obedient. So how do we just trust in his strength? Let's declare these. I decree that I will trust in the name of the Lord, not in worldly strength or wisdom.

13:21 I want to just confirm that you heard me. I decree that I will trust in the name of the Lord, not in worldly strength or worldly wisdom. I decree that I will seek God's guidance in every decision, knowing his plans are perfect. I decree that God's strength in my source of power and his wisdom is my guide. So we're just trusting in God. We're trusting in his wisdom. We're trusting in his guidance. We're trusting in his plans. We're trusting in his power, and we're just trusting him wholeheartedly. So how can we kind of develop this strength and trust in God. So I want you to, this week or today or tomorrow, rely, how to, this week, reflect on where you've been relying on worldly strength instead of trusting God.

14:12 That's easy to do, right? So you can take a paper, draw a line. You can put trust in God, trust in wisdom. And you can just put, make a list. And then see where you need to continue your decree and to build up your faith. What steps can you take to release control and let God guide you? Those are some questions you can ask yourself. What steps can I take to release control and let God guide me? And then how can I lean into God's promises and rely on his power? How can I lean on his promises, into his promise, rely on his power?

14:55 Another one you can ask, how can I acknowledge my limitations in these decisions? How can I accept God's guidance first? And how can I celebrate God's faithfulness? I remember I had a job and I was working as a CPS worker. And those cases can get really hard sometimes. And I remember trying to make these decisions, you know, what to do with what. You have supervisors, but, you know, you want to try to make the right decision at the right time. And so, and the Lord was saying, like, bring each one of these cases to me so that I can help you make the decision, you know. And I would just, it'd be a chance where I would just list the names and I'll go before the Lord and I'll say, Lord, what about this one? And then he'll give me a little background.

15:43 I'll make a decision. Then I'll give another case. And it was just like he was kind of the supervisor of the cases. I didn't have to carry that burden on trying to determine what's the best outcome because that's that worldly wisdom, right? We don't know the end of the story, but God does. And each one of those cases turned out the way he wanted them to, or how they were going to be. Let this person do, she's going to do this. He just had the whole story. And I love that. And even in a recent job I had the same thing. I just took those cases to them. So those examples are like, instead of you using your worldly wisdom at your job, take your issue, your problem, your circumstances, is take them to God and ask him, how should I handle this problem?

16:35 How do you want me to handle this situation? And before I resigned from this other job that had a lot of pressure, I think a lot of control, a lot of manipulation. I saw it on the 30th day, and I continue to see it on the 60th day. And I was like, Lord, what is going on? I loved it the 30th day. I said, okay, I can handle some of this. It really got really pressing on the 60th day. And I said, okay, I don't think this is the job for me because of the things that God was showing me, like exposing to me. Because when you take things to the Lord, your worldly wisdom will think, okay, this too should pass.

17:16 And you're not, if nothing's happening, you're just like, okay, this ain't working for me, but you don't know why. But if you take it to God, he will say, this is what's going on behind the scenes. and then he can help you. And so we talked about Saul, and we see that Saul had a word from the Lord, but he disobeyed it. And so we may have a word from the Lord about working at this particular job, but yet things are happening kind of crazy, getting chaotic. Go to the Lord. Don't use worldly wisdom. Go to the Lord and ask him, what do you, like Saul to Paul, what would you have me to do with this?

18:03 And make it your day. Like you're going, a lot of times we have to meet with our supervisors. Go to the Lord first. And then when you meet with your supervisor, you already have a plan. They've like, kind of you, you have a great control of your cases. Why? Because I didn't get it from worldly wisdom. I got it from the Lord. Amen. So I want to let you go and close out in prayer. But just a little bit of wisdom here. Go to God with everything. Go to him for everything, with everything. Heavenly Father, I thank you for being our strength and our shield. Making that you are available to us to answer our questions, to manage our caseload, to give us your wisdom and your knowledge on stuff that we don't even know, Lord God.

18:58 We ask for forgiveness for the times we trusted in worldly wisdom and our own ability instead of relying on you. Teach us to surrender control and lean wholly on your power and promises. Strengthen our faith and guide us every step we take. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I thank you also for this opportunity just to be able to flow with you. It's just been fun. It's just been fun. All right. So thank you for joining me for this episode on the games we play with God. If this is the message that challenge or encourage you, share with a friend and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode where we will discuss game number 10.

19:46 The game of half-hearted obedience. Until next time, stay trusting, stay surrendered, and be blessed.