“Now the Lord said to Samuel, ‘You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as the king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.’”
1 Samuel 16:1
Running full speed ahead with an empty tank was like trying to drive a car on fumes. Fear and pride had drilled holes in my gas tank, but they were not the only holes. Doctor Jesus showed me another issue draining my energy--mourning over past mistakes, especially errors I made in raising our children.
Even though our kids had left home years before, I still carried around regret for every one of my parenting failures. Finally, in God's hospital room I accepted JESUS’ forgiveness, and chose to trust HIM to restore whatever damage had been done!
I find it encouraging that God did not rebuke Samuel for mourning; it’s an inevitable part of life. Samuel had simply mourned long enough, and GOD said it was time to move on…to fill his flask and go anoint someone else for service!
Samuel’s flask needed oil, and so do ours! The only way we can keep running without exhaustion is to fill our tanks with the oil of HIS Spirit. However, we cannot buy even a drop of that priceless oil from this world’s pumps; it only comes from God’s. So, let’s park at HIS Pump often, not just for a dollar’s worth, but for a full tank!
THEN we can go pour that sweet oil of HIS presence on everyone around us!
