Dear God, I am starting a Bible study for men in a “Christian Men’s Life Skills” class on Monday. I’ll be doing 10 of them for the next ten Mondays. A lot of these men are there because they are court-mandated to accumulate community service hours and taking this class can count towards those hours. I’ve never tried to teach the Bible to a group like this before, and I don’t know how much I can assume they know about any of these stories. I’m thinking, especially with the Old Testament, there won’t be much they know. So I’m thinking about doing a 10-week series on 1 Samuel. Saul will be my main character, but I have to give some background.
Saul came up just this morning when I woke up when I saw that Fred Smith’s blog this week was about Saul. The topic for the first week is self-esteem, and Saul is a great example of low self-esteem. Honestly, I’m still surprised you picked him. Was he just a placeholder until David got old enough? On the surface, it seems like a mistake. Did you put your thumb on the scale, give him the gift of prophecy to give him some credibility and confidence, and then turn him loose in a job that was too big for him? Of course, I have no idea. All I know is what happened. And all I can do now is try to figure out what you have to teach me through Saul’s life. And David’s for that matter. Samuel too. While we are at it, we might as well throw in the elders of Israel who demanded a king.
Father, I’m going to noodle with this more today, but I’m starting to like the idea of helping these men spend some time in 1 Samuel and the characters. Eli. Samuel. Saul. Jonathan. David. It’s really a great read. But there’s a lot here that I need more time than this morning prayer will afford me. So I’m going to just leave this as a starting point and come back to you later to spend some more time with Saul and his imposter syndrome/low self-esteem problem. Reveal to me what you need these men to learn from these stories. Use me to deliver it. I feel more than a little inadequate myself. Be made perfect in my weakness.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
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