But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. — 1 Samuel 16:14
Once, I was talking with someone who was dealing with some struggles in life. They had battled sin for quite some time. They approached me and simply wanted to talk. As they talked, they shared how they knew what they were doing was wrong and still, they were unable to leave it behind. They were at a breaking point in their life.
As we spoke, I thought of a lot of examples throughout scripture of people who struggled with a variety of things. There are many examples of people who have struggled with temptations, sin, and even disobedience throughout scripture. But one of the best examples I could think of was Saul.
Saul was in a great position. He was King, and the only person that he had to answer to was God. He simply needed to do as God wanted him to do. But that was the problem. Saul was not interested in doing what God wanted, he was more interested in doing what he wanted. He was disobedient, even when he knew what was the right thing to do.
Finally, God said enough is enough. As we read and study, we find that God had Samuel anoint David as King, and we read that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit troubled him. Saul had the opportunity to surrender his life to God, letting God have his way. Instead, he chose a different direction and it lead to trouble.
I love what Matthew Henry said about this verse. He said, “If God and his grace do not rule us, sin will have possession of us.” But before we end up in trouble, we have a choice. It really comes down to who says “enough is enough” first.
Perhaps you find yourself where you know what you need to do, but you are battling it. Maybe you aren’t living for God as you should and you know you need to correct things. Do it before it is too late! There will come a time when God says “enough is enough.” By His grace, He is giving you the opportunity to fix things first.
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