Embrace Your New Path

Let’s continue looking at what the Bible tells us about Saul’s life!

Last post, we dug into the background of where Saul came from and met him on his quest to find his father’s lost donkeys.

We left Saul sitting at the table with Samuel, eating food that was set aside beforehand specifically for him. After this meal, Saul and the young man stay the night in the city of Zuph.

So far, the last 24 hours have been a strange and memorable day for him, I’m sure.

But, what happens the next morning is completely life changing.

Let’s pick up in Chapter 10:

“Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies.” 1 Samuel 10:1a (ESV)

Samuel follows his instructions from God and anoints Saul to be “prince over His people of Israel”.

Surely, this must have been completely unexpected by Saul!

Remember, just four days ago, Saul was a handsome commoner simply following his father’s instructions to go find his lost donkeys. Now he finds himself face to face with a prophet who is telling him he’s been chosen by God to lead His people!

After he’s been anointed, Samuel gives Saul detailed instructions on what to do next.

He prophesied 3 signs that God is going to give to Saul in order that he may know he’s truly been anointed to be prince over Israel. (Spoiler Alert: Later in 1 Samuel 10:9 we find out that all the signs that Samuel tells Saul about come to pass that very day!)

Honestly, if I were in Saul’s shoes, I’m pretty sure I would need some signs to prove that this is all real, too! Up until yesterday, he was wandering looking for his father’s lost donkeys. And now he’s supposed to walk in belief that he’s the new leader of Israel?

I want to take some time to look at each of these signs and how amazingly purposeful God was in choosing these specific areas to show Saul that he indeed had been called into this new life as king of Israel.

These three signs were so intentional and they can give us insight on what God asks of us during our own times of waiting on the Lord to lead us into the life He has called us into.

The first sign Samuel tells Saul to watch for is this:

And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage. When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”‘ 1 Samuel 10:1b-2 (ESV)

Samuel prophesies that the donkeys that Saul was originally sent out to look for have already been found and now his father is worried about him being gone for so long.

There is something so purposeful in that out of anything God could have chosen to do for Saul’s first sign, He chose for it to be about the life he is now being asked to leave in order to walk into being king.

In our waiting to move into what God has for our future, we will always need to process actively leaving the way our life is currently.

This can be big or small, but it’s our mindset that can keep us from willingly walking into what God has for us next.

Sometimes it’s a positive change in our life, like adding a family member.

Sometimes it’s a scary change like a move away from all the people you know and the comfort of your own routine you’ve come to be used to.

Sometimes it’s an unwelcomed change, like the loss of a loved one you didn’t picture continuing life without.

No matter what it is, when God has something new in our future for us, it will always include some kind of change from the life we live currently. And the only way we can wholeheartedly walk in what He has for us is if we are willing to embrace the mindset of change.

Not forgetting what was, but embracing what is.

As I was trying to think back on where I’ve seen God do this in my own life, my old car popped in my head.

She was a little, shiny blue Ford Focus.

I had gotten that car right when I started my first job as a nurse. The night before my first day of orientation, the brakes on my previous car went out and the cost of fixing it was far greater than the actual worth of the car itself.

So, Matt drove me to and from work for a week before we bought this new-to-me blue one.

It was perfect for me at the time. A small car was all I needed to drive to my night shift at the hospital, home in the morning, and then turn around to do it again the next evening.

Then once Ace came along, that car moved to Cleveland with me and allowed me to get around to where I needed to be. And parking-wise, I was thankful to have a little car that could fit just about anywhere in the constantly packed hospital parking garage.

But a while after Ace came home, it was time to sell it.

I wasn’t driving it anywhere anymore. Ace’s bigger car seat didn’t fit in it, so it was just sitting in our garage most of the time.

I knew it logically made sense to get rid of the car, but I didn’t want to.

I hadn’t worked since Ace was born, but something inside of me was still holding on to my pride of my own plan for my life which was working as a nurse in my dream job. Now my life plan had changed to God’s plan for me which was being a stay-at-home mom caring for Ace 24/7.

Almost a year later, I still hadn’t taken my employee parking sticker off because I didn’t want to let go of that piece of me. (Which actually landed me a parking ticket when I parked in visitor parking to deliver Ace!)

Letting go of the car I wasn’t using anymore shouldn’t have been a big deal, just like when Saul was told to move on from searching for his father’s donkeys that had already been found.

But the mindset it was demanding of me to let go of where God used to have me (working in the hospital assisting in other women’s new baby deliveries), and now fully embracing the path God has before me (caring for my own child’s special needs at home)- that’s what was difficult for me.

Selling my car was this symbolic act of letting go of the path God once had me on. And accepting the new path God had called me onto as a stay at home mom; a life that I had honestly never pictured for myself.

I was trying to live in where God had me without moving on from where I was.

It’s hard for us to move on from our past path that God had us on when we don’t fully understand what His next new path will be like. Very rarely will we ever feel that a new path would be better than a path we’ve grown accustomed to and built our life around.

But we have to remember that our identity should not be rooted in the path that God has us on- but in the God who brings us on the path and promises to walk by our side every step of the way.

God knew every bit of what he was asking Saul to move on from. Samuel told him about the donkeys before Saul even asked. God is not unaware of our current situation when He calls us into something new.

In fact, when we are following God with our lives, our previous path will have been something He once called us into. God had called me to be a nurse years ago and so I followed that calling.

Moving on from our old path to the new path He has before us is not forgetting where we were. But, it’s allowing us to fully embrace where He has us now.

God wants our whole hearts.

You can stop doing something God’s asked you to move on from yet still have your heart and mind still very much holding on to it.

There’s a difference between following God with your feet, and following God with your heart, mind, and feet. Sometimes it takes letting go of the way life is right now in order to walk into the life change He has for us.

Trusting He has a life more than enough.

That’s where I was with nursing. God had called me into the life of a stay-at-home mom, and I was obviously living in that. But I was not fully embracing it as I kept my mindset holding onto the path I once walked working as a nurse. And maybe in the future I will again walk in that. But right now, I need to set my mind on where He has me today and the path I’m walking with Him today, letting go of my plan for my life, and trusting God’s is greater.

God was telling Saul that he could move on from his pursuit of the donkeys. It was time for him to let go of what his life was up to this day, and trust God by walking into the new path He had for him- King of Israel.

God asks us to do the same while we are in our transitional waiting between where we are now and what He has next for us.

We can’t walk wholeheartedly on the path that He’s now calling us onto if our minds are still set on the path He had us walking before this.

Are you trying to walk in the life God’s called you to while your heart and mind are still holding onto what your life used to be like?

Don’t let not being able to let go of where you were keep you from walking freely into the life God has designed for you now.

From one of His children to another,

Christi