He Knows Where to Find You

"Maybe God has bigger plans for me than I have for myself" -A Walk to Remember

This morning I picked up reading about Saul and his becoming King over Israel. But something ,about a story I've read many times, struck me in away that it never had before. 

That is the beauty of the Word of God. We can read the same words/stories over and over again and leave with a fresh word every time--the Word of God truly is "alive and active." 

What stood out was the moment when Saul found out he was now King of Israel--God's chosen man. 

Most of the time when I read the story of Saul becoming King I immediately think about his down fall--I read with the ending already in mind.  The people wanted a King "like every other nation" (God wasn't going to be good enough) and so God gave them what they asked--a King. Saul fit the bill physically (he looked the part). Eventually, however, God rejected Saul and anointed King David. 

That is typically how I read the story of Saul--with the ending already in the back of my mind. This morning however I just sat in that moment. Not thinking ahead to what was going to come, but just sitting in the moment when this man was anointed King. 

What struck me was that Saul received this calling/anointing while looking for something completely different. He didn't ride into town on a white horse declaring himself King.  He was simply of a journey of obedience. 

His father, Kish, had lost their donkeys and had asked his son Saul to take a servant with him and go look for them. So that's what Saul was doing. 

Saul was looking for donkeys, but God had a destiny in mind for him. 

He was looking for donkeys but found a destiny. 

He set out on one journey and found another. 

What he originally was setting out to do was a good thing--obey his father's instructions to find the donkeys. God, however, had something even bigger in mind that Saul could have ever imagined. 

He lost one thing that actually ending up leading him to find another--even greater. 

God will often use things/people/circumstances to lead us in the direction of our destiny.

In Saul's case it was lost donkeys' and simple obedience to go look for them that led him on a journey toward his purpose. 

God was in it ALL. He was leading Saul even when Saul didn't know it. God had told Samuel the day before Saul even showed up that he was coming. 

Which also shows you how amazing God is because around the same time Saul was actually thinking of going back. I love knowing that God believes in me when I don't always believe in myself--he always sees where I'm going, where he taking me! I love that God speaks things that are not as they are--he believes before we do!

Saul almost turned around and didn't enter in to the very place that whole journey was really leading up to. (1 Sam. 9:5-6). The whole journey was meant to lead him to the very place he was about to walk away from. 

How often to we almost turn around or give up right before God is about to bless us? The journey is never for nothing!

So glad Saul had someone (servant) with him to spur him on to keep going--to keep trying.

We need each other. You never know what is right around the corner and sometimes it's that little extra push that gets us where God has been leading all along, but we need someone to help push us--to take that leap of faith that will lead us to more than we could have ever hoped or imagined.

Saul didn't set out to become King--he set out to simply be obedient.

God meets us in the midst of simple obedience. It's not in the midst of the big, glamorous things that every sees where God often will call us it's in the everyday obedience.

It's in the looking for lost donkeys like Saul
  
It's in the plowing fields like Ruth

It's in the tending the sheep like Moses and David

It's in the fields like Gidean

It's in the boats like the Disciples

It's in the fields like Elisha

There is beauty is learning to show faithfulness in the day-to-day of the season you're in. God knows how/where to find you.