How To Handle Your Displeasure

# 100 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 8:6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. It would be foolish for us to assume that Samuel was not familiar with that passage in Dt 17 that spoke of the day when the people would ask for a king to rule over them. This is Samuel. He knew the Word of God. Perhaps his displeasure stemmed from the fact that the request occurs during his watch. But more likely his displeasure was grounded in the fact that the people wanted a king “like the nations around them.” This attitude was trouble and Samuel knew it. It is as the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul in 2Co 6:17a says, “Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. And in James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” We are to be in the world, not of it. It wasn't so much the idea that the people wanted a king, but that they thought they would be better protected under such an arrangement. This is the problem when people look to government for their answers, rather than God. Government, good and bad, is a tool of God. If that is the case , (and it is) as it says in Ro 13:1b says, “there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” Then we need to ask ourselves, “Is it better then to look to the tool for our help or to the one who holds the tool in His hands?” One more very important lesson from this text. Look at how Samuel handled his displeasure. He was displeased, “so he prayed to the Lord.” He didn't vent his displeasure on the people. He took his displeasure to the Lord. Anything displeasing to you today? Anything got your dander up? Before you go off on others, why don't you take your displeasure to the Lord and wait for further instructions.