1 Samuel 7
It is one thing to be a Christian; it is another thing to be a happy Christian. To know the scriptural doctrine of the believer's position and privileges is very different from having the possession and enjoyment of them. The fact is, we are slow to enter upon and make our own the blessings God has graciously given us in Christ.
In Samuel's day, the people were characterized for a long time by lamenting after the Lord; this, we fear, describes the state of heart of thousands of Christians now. They are desiring rather than possessing, longing for instead of enjoying fellowship with the Lord Himself. They are hoping to have, instead of entering into God's thoughts and purposes and tasting His joys. Why is this?
The Single Eye
In Israel's day there was unjudged evil among them and the eye and heart were not single. So they were told to "put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth," and also to "serve Him I the Lord] only." So now there are "strange gods": some things occupying the heart contrary to the truth, something between the soul and the Lord. It may be the world, its pride, wealth, honor, or pleasure in some shape or other. Or it may be pet lusts, self-love, self-exaltation, or something else cherished or allowed which the Word of God positively condemns.
If this be so, the eye cannot be single, nor the heart only desiring the glory of God-serving Him only. The affections are not set on heavenly things. The eye and heart are not exercised in the life and walk of faith, and things of time and sense so occupy the soul that there is desire to have, rather than present possession and enjoyment. So, like Israel of old, they go on year after year lamenting after the Lord (1 Sam. 7:2, 32And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. 3And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. (1 Samuel 7:2‑3)).
Rejoicing in the Lord
The truth is that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. We have been made alive, raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Observe this word "made". It is done. We are already associated with Him who is exalted at God's right hand. We have the present possession of life eternal in Christ, we are in Christ in heavenly places, we are fully blessed in Him, we are sons of God. Marvelous blessings!
Should we then be lamenting after the Lord? Certainly not, but rejoicing in the Lord, seeking the things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Our minds should be set and fixed on things above, and not on things on the earth. In short, possessing and enjoying all that God has made us and given us in Christ.
And there is more: joying in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received these amazing blessings. You may ask, How can I possess and enjoy all this? We reply: Not by efforts and resolutions, but by simply believing God's own statements as to His rich mercy in blessing us in Christ.
Snares of Unbelief
Beloved fellow Christians, let us beware of the snares of unbelief, whoever they may be presented by, or in whatever shape. Let the Scripture be the sole and exclusive authority to our hearts and consciences. What can be worse than not to receive implicitly what God has written? Let us watch against the Christ-dishonoring, soul-damaging ways of false humility and doubt. When Scripture gives us the plainest possible statement, what but unbelief could suggest the question: What does it mean?
In these days of growing rationalism, we need to guard against every insinuation which refuses the direct and absolute authority of the written Word of God. Let us not take lower ground than it gives us, notwithstanding the scorn of unbelief, and charge of presumption that skeptical minds may intimate.
"Let God be true, but every man a liar" was, and still is, the motto of believing souls. To have "strange gods" among us—the heart set on things of earth—and to be faithfully serving the Lord, is simply impossible. To be consciously and happily one with Christ, and to be practically taking a place as one with men in the flesh, cannot be. No man can serve two masters. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." If the world, and men in the flesh are worthy, or if the interests of self in your estimation have the first place, let it be so, and honestly abandon Christian ground saying, "Baal is my god.”
But if Christ be worthy, if He who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood has, in our estimation, most justly the first and only claim, then let us serve Him only. Let us follow Him closely and walk worthy of the Lord who has called us unto His kingdom and glory.
H. H. Snell