Post by Pastor Tim Dillmuth – Our present life is not simply a precursor to a life in heaven, but rather preparation for an eternity of ruling and reigning with Christ!  And I was reminded this week that preparation is often done through the monotonous, dry and boring times of life.

In church this past Sunday, Pastor Foley shared an important difference between Saul and David in 1 Samuel 23:1-8.  Notice both David’s and Saul’s responses when faced with important questions.  Verses 3-4 say,

But David’s men said to him, “Here in Judah we are afraid. How much more, then, if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!”  Once again David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD answered him, “Go down to Keilah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand.”

And later in verse 7,

Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, and he said, “God has handed him over to me, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars.”

David inquires of the Lord (also in vs. 2), but Saul assumes he knows what God wants.  And we see this pattern time and time again in the lives of Saul and David.  1 Samuel 13 is another good example of this, whereby Saul sacrifices without Samuel, assuming that God would want him to sacrifice before he went into battle, no matter what.

Ultimately, this could be the most important thing that separated Saul from David.  Despite struggles, deceit and yes . . . monotony, David continued to inquire of the Lord instead of assuming that he knew what was right.  And this is one of a few things that qualified David to reign as King of Israel for so many years.

For us, “asking God” is one of the many things that goes by the wayside when our Christian life becomes monotonous.  The “100 Days of Worship” campaign is a good example of this.  I’ve talked with a few people that have shared that their daily family worship has become a bit to tiresome and monotonous.  And as much as I’d like to chide them, I fully understand what they expressed.

At times, there are lots of things more exciting and exhilarating than being faithful to the monotonous work of leading your family and those in your sphere of influence in family worship.  And I’m not just talking about the common distractions of our multi-media culture, but we can even replace worship with good things like Pastor Foley mentioned in his last post.

But God trains us to reign in each and every situation, including the boring and monotonous ones.  This marked David’s early life, (before he was chosen to be King) as he worshiped God in the midst of the monotony of keeping his father’s sheep.

As the 100 Days has now gone beyond the halfway point, your daily worship in the common places may be becoming routine.  But instead of being discouraged by the routineness, look at it as an opportunity to model the North Korean’s faithfulness that they have exhibited over the past 60 years through monotony, repetiveness, persecution and even death.