Samuel had rallied all of Israel together after the period of Judges when everyone was doing right in their own eyes, but they haven’t completely gotten hold of God and following after Him.

Samuel knows he is going to die soon. He gathers the people together and recounts for them all the Lord did for them in choosing them as His own people and delivering them out of Egypt.

He tells the people that they have done an evil thing in asking for a king. They had seen a foreign king rise up to come against them, and in fear they asked for a king. They asked for a king because they had no relationship with the Lord. They were losing Samuel and his sons weren’t following the Lord. They had been relying on Samuel to intercede for them. They had no relationship with God on their own. They didn’t know how to call on Him, only how to ask Samuel to call on the Lord.

Have you taught your kids to call on the Lord? Have you taught them to live with God, not just come when called and to do their chores and to read their Bibles every day and go to church with the family?

Have you taught them to live in a relationship with God?

Have you made loving God and loving others the most important thing?

Is it more important than reading the Bible and going to church?

You bet. A million times over.

Why?

Reading the Bible and going to church profit nothing without love of God and others.

They can be useful tools in the hands of the Spirit for leading people to Himself, but apart from God, apart from Love, they amount to nothing.

It’s all nothing without love (1 Cor. 13:3).

Everything we have to do is summed up in love God and love others. Let’s stop complicating things and keep it simple.

Just love. Abide in God’s love until love is what oozes out of you no matter where you are or what you are doing or who you are with.

Let those around you see what it means to truly know the love of God.