{"id":4497,"date":"2023-01-14T18:05:31","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T00:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4497"},"modified":"2023-01-14T18:05:31","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T00:05:31","slug":"devotional-on-1-samuel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-1-samuel-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 1 Samuel"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-L4ft7LaoFmc\/XcDNis0oMYI\/AAAAAAABCmo\/aLg_gp481Y0V8jxUoDlP43N2mycoheb1wCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_3037.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1195\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, AZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Making the most of what God has given<br \/>\n1 Samuel 2: I\u2019ll establish for myself a true priest. He\u2019ll do what I want him to do, and be what I want him to be.<br \/>\nThe priest Eli is an interesting person in the story of Samuel. He presides over the worship activities at Shiloh but is a deeply flawed individual. He has some spiritual insights, but won\u2019t control his own sons who make a mockery of spiritual things. At the same time, he\u2019s entrusted with the young Samuel who&#8217;ll usher in a new day in Israel\u2019s relationship with God. I want to cut him some slack because he lives in these days of transition but it\u2019s plain that the Lord holds him accountable for his failure. I don\u2019t have to judge him because the Lord already has. Eli is, I think, a person who has great potential that\u2019s never realized. He has position, insight, and opportunity to make a real impact for God. Instead, he shows only occasional flashes of that and is ultimately told by the Lord that he and his family will be replaced by someone more worthy. Frankly, I think one reason I want to go easy on Eli is that I fear my life also sometimes fails to measure up. God has been good to me and blessed me in many ways. I don\u2019t want to someday look back and see years of wasted opportunity.<br \/>\nTake Away: Make the most of opportunities the Lord gives you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Making the most of what God has given 1 Samuel 2: I\u2019ll establish for myself a true priest. He\u2019ll do what I want him to do, and be what I want him to be. The priest Eli is an interesting person in the story of Samuel. He presides over the worship activities at Shiloh but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1473,7],"tags":[114,336,668,786,987],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14188,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497\/revisions\/14188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}