January 29

I Samuel 12:24 recommends a mindset that can transform the life of the one who exercises it. The wisdom the Lord imparts in this verse is irrefutable, though it is too infrequently applied. It admonishes, “Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart, for consider how great are the things He has done for you.”

The counsel here is three-fold. First, we are admonished to “fear the Lord.” If we fear Him—hold Him in reverent awe—we will need tremble at nothing. If we fear the Lord, He will embolden us to face any foe with assurance of victory. He who knows the end from the beginning gives us the assurance that He will go before us and guard behind us.

The second point He makes in this strategic verse is that we “serve Him faithfully with all our hearts.” He is not impressed with partial commitment or half-hearted faith. No matter how things look, God wants us to trust Him and walk in the expectancy of seeing Him move in our behalf as we lay our lives at His feet in total surrender to Him.

The final and perhaps most helpful bit of counsel regards how we shall achieve that level of reverential fear and heartfelt faithfulness, and He tells us it is by “considering what He has done for us.” When we reflect upon His faithfulness to us in the past, we are reminded of His integrity, of His power, of His love which have brought us this far and will take us every place He wants us to go.