Oops! Now what?

Oops! Now what?

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: Oops! Now what? -------------------------- Date: 1/17/2001
Keywords: "busted" "fear" "serve" "turn"
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Passage: 1 Samuel 12:17-20*

17. "Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the LORD by asking for yourselves a king."

18. So Samuel called to the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.

19. Then all the people said to Samuel, "Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king."

20. And Samuel said to the people, "Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.

Questions

1. What are your first thoughts when you get busted for doing something you shouldn't have been doing?

2. Assume you're a porn struggler and say it's given that involement with porn has proved to be destructive. If you could objectively judge yourself, how would you deal with you?

Practical help

The Israelites looked around "town Canaan" and thought, "If you're with it, you've got to have a king." Maybe you're looking around "With It World" and thinking "don't I deserve to be a part of the unshackling of the old world sexual prude?" Then the (thunder) hammer falls and the light (lightning's pretty bright) reveals what is good and what is wicked. Now the "Why nots?" turn to "Becauses!" and you're sitting there wondering what you'll have to do to get that "Oops!" off your back. Or you wonder if that's even possible.

Try tuning in to Samuel's sound advice -- "Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart." (verse 20)

Don't let past or even current failures dissuade you from seeing what God says is good for your life. Turn back and serve Me, says God and let the past (even the last minute) be the past and the future be a new start.

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLEŽ, Š Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."