April 2, 2026

Hey guys, 

this week’s Thought comes from 1 Samuel 7:3. Let me set the context for you.

Samuel was God's appointed judge for the people of Israel at this moment in time. The Philistines are bearing down on the Israelites. The Philistines were a larger, more powerful army. The Israelites were staring defeat right in their face, and they knew only God's interaction would help. 

So, God gave these words to Samuel for the children of Israel at that moment.

“All the people of Israel, ‘If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone; then He will rescue you from the Philistines.’”

If you're not careful, that's an easy passage to look beyond. The Philistines and the Israelites fought numerous times in the Old Testament, so it would be easy to say, that's just an old story. As you read the words foreign gods or images of Ashtoreth, it would be easy to discount this as “non-applicable” to your life. It would be easy for you to say, “I don't have any foreign gods in my house. I don't have a statue of something up on my shelf. I don't even know what Ashtoreth looked like!” 

That might be your response, however, this may be more applicable than it may first seem. When it reads, “get rid of all your foreign gods,” note…that is a lowercase “g”! We may not have things in our life that we call “gods”, but we definitely have things in our life that we worship, with our time, talents, our resources, or with our relationships. 

I want to challenge you this week. Be honest, brutally so. What are the things in your life that may not be bad, but are things that take your focus away from the Lord or keep you busy with something else so that you can't focus on Him? Be honest in your evaluation. Maybe for you, it's your kids, or maybe it's your spouse. All those things are good, I'm not telling you not to love and value your spouse or your kids, but maybe they have become your “little ‘g’ god”?

Be honest in your evaluation. How can you change the role that those things play in your life, in order to focus more on Jesus, to focus more on becoming the man or woman that God's created you to be?

Love you guys,

John