Saul has been anointed the first king over Israel and he’s getting ready to go into battle against the Philistines. Samuel tells Saul:

“Go down ahead of me to Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do.” (1 Samuel 10:8)

We pick up the story in chapter 13:

The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Micmash, east of Beth Aven. When the men of Israel saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering.  Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

“What have you done?” asked Samuel.

Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

Samuel had given Saul God’s instructions, but Saul’s focus was not on God–it was on his circumstances. Saul saw. He thought. He felt. And he was impatient.

We never experience God’s best when we focus on what we can see, rely on our own thoughts and then act based on our feelings.

The results were disastrous for Saul. The throne would be taken from him and would be given to David whom God described as “a man after my own heart.”

Are you trying to determine God’s will for your life?

Get to know Him better, so you will trust Him more and understand how He works. You cannot trust someone you do not know.

Know that God’s ways will always require trusting Him. That is the opposite of how the world system works. The world’s ways are based on what we see, on common sense, on what we think needs to be done at the moment.

That’s just not how God does things though. His will always requires patience and trust. And those only come from knowing Him.