“that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

1 Samuel 8:20 (NKJV)

Behold him, the name of whose empire is eternal- Mass entrance

We are all looking for our King, I am convinced of that. Our desire is to be free and do what we want, when we want, but soon thereafter we find ourselves craving structure, and form. It’s why we make New Year’s Resolutions, go on diets, make amends and go to confession. And some way, somehow, we are all connected by the sense that we need something more. It is what that “something” is that we make our ultimate King.

Prophets among men have always been extremely unpopular. So unpopular, their message has preceded their untimely death. The message and the mission of prophets is to bring God’s warning and wisdom to those who will listen. But ultimately, they are rejected by the very people who they were sent to preach to.

And so to it was with the prophet Samuel, that his people did not care to listen. Demanding a fleshly King rather than God, the King of the Universe. “We want to be like everyone else,” they said, “We don’t trust in a God that we cannot see.”

The people did not want to fight their battles with God or listen to what the prophet Samuel had to say. But no matter, Samuel had done his job. He had given his warning, he had spoken. But nobody wanted to listen.

And so it is in our own lives.  We may have found God, but He’s so last year. We’ve moved on to the next thing. Now it’s about the wisdom of the wind, or whatever is trending. We don’t trust and cannot follow a God we cannot see. We say that we can do whatever we please, but are the first in line to hang onto every word of the next quote coming from the next best thing. Even if you believe in nothing, that is something, and that my friends is your King.

Our views on God are small, minute actually. They are good enough for now. And when God is just not good enough, we cast Him off to the side like an old and worn out pair of shoes. Until of course we need Him again.

I had an old friend come to visit me today. He was seeking answers. What I am supposed to do? He himself had left the throne empty. He wanted God, craved God, but not enough to want to hear my answer. When we do it our way, it just doesn’t seem to work out, and that message is not religious, its universal. 

So who or what is the King in your life? What rules your day or even your life? Are you depending on a fleshly King, or could it be that there is something more?