Friday, July 10, 2020

FMF: Endure

But now your kingdom will not endure;
the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart
and appointed him ruler of his people,
because you have not kept the Lord’s command.
1 Samuel 13:14, NIV

My best friend calls me an anti-bandwagoner.  Basically, if something is really popular, I won't be interested in it, at least not until the hype has passed.  I fully admit I have a different way of looking at things. Just last week I asked a friend why she was doing something a certain way.  Wouldn't another way be easier?  I wasn't trying to tell her she was wrong; I just saw the situation differently than she did.

When I saw the prompt for today's Five Minute Friday session, I knew that many people would write about how "His love endures forever."  The phrase appears more than 40 times in the NIV translation of scripture.  Those who read the NKJV translation would be writing that "His mercy endures forever."  This is a good word, but being the anti-bandwagoner that I am, I will not.

Instead, I am writing about NOT enduring.  In 1 Samuel, we read God list one specific attribute in Saul that made him unfit to be king: Saul had not kept God's commands.  God says nothing about his vision setting goals or the economy of the nation.  His kingdom did not endure because of his relationship with God.  In that same verse, there is one attribute about David that made him worthy of the being king: David was a man after God's heart.  There is, perhaps, no other quality in a person, that God desires, except that we love him. Our ability to endure hangs on this.


This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.

7 comments:

  1. Hi I love this that you see things 'differently' and go with it - we are all unique! Visiting from FMF#5 - and no, I didn't write about God's love enduring forever although I am so thankful that it does :)

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    1. Which brings up another quirk: I often think I know how people will respond, but I am usually wrong. =)

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  2. I didn't go with "his love endures forever." I went with His mercy and His grace. And, I pray I always have the endurance to run the race, no matter how hard it gets. #7

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  3. Love the anti bandwagoner! I love how God uses the most unexpected people. They all have the love of God is there hearts as the key though.

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  4. I like the contrarian take on this.

    Made me wonder if in the 'saga' of Saul, David, and Solomon we are less meant to measure ourselves against who we would (and would not) be, but rather see that each king is represented in our hearts.

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    1. I love this thought. I definitely have Saul days, and I definitely have David days.

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  5. Your post made me smile, in the end you did write about enduring, but in a "kinda later way". :)

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