The Morning After: Holy Dissatisfaction

What I learned from Sunday's sermon:

1 Samuel 14

 ¹ One day Jonathan son of Saul said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not tell his father.

So what struck me about this passage was Jonathan's complete trust in God. He didn't care about the circumstances. He's the only guy in the entire army with a weapon. Can you imagine? An entire country without weapons. To give some background, the Philistines are occupying Israel and none of the Israelites have iron weapons. In essence, they are utterly defenseless. Jonathan was showing incredible courage to go up in broad daylight to the Philistine outpost. He's the prince of Israel! The heir! Imagine how excited the Philistines would be! Here's one guy with one of the only two weapons in Israel and he's the prince to boot!

² Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men, ³ among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD’s priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left.

 ⁴ On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez and the other Seneh. ⁵ One cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash, the other to the south toward Geba.

 ⁶ Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”

Jonathan basically said, "What the heck. Why not? What do we have to lose? If we believe that the Lord saves, why care about the circumstances?"

 ⁷ “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”

These are the kind of friends you need. Dudes who will say "I'm with you heart and soul". It's part of stirring each other up to good works. Building each other up. Encouraging one another.

 ⁸ Jonathan said, “Come on, then; we will cross over toward them and let them see us. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the LORD has given them into our hands.”

 ¹¹ So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. “Look!” said the Philistines. “The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” ¹² The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.”

   So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me; the LORD has given them into the hand of Israel.”

 ¹³ Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. ¹⁴ In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.

Wow. What an incredible story. So what's the moral? Don't be contented with what you have....spiritually. Don't say, I'm in a  good place. I'm happy where I am. Aspire to do great things for God. To do impossible things. To convert a thousand people. To pray everyday for an hour. I don't know. Your vision will look different than mine. But pray to get yours...and then act on it. Don't be a could-have-been. The guy who's always like "If X hadn't happened, I'd have done Y great thing for God." Be the guy who went out on a limb, who people called crazy, because he acted on God's vision for his life.

In other words, have a holy dissatisfaction. What's in store for you is greater than anything you can imagine.