“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ,” 2 Corinthians 2:14a. KJV.
Saul was the king of Israel. The bible tells us of two main instances when he disobeyed God. First was in 1 Sam 13:5-14, when the Philistines gathered themselves to fight with Israel and all the people were afraid. Saul having waited for seven days (the agreed time that Samuel was to come to offer the sacrifice) without seeing Samuel decided to do the function of the prophet by offering burnt sacrifice to God. And by that act, God reversed his earlier plan to make Saul and his family, king over Israel forever.
Secondly, when God through Samuel told Saul to kill all living things in Amalek. In 1 Samuel 15:3 KJV, Samuel told Saul “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”
Saul went to war with the Amalekites and killed everyone but kept the best of the sheep and Oxen (1 Sam 15:15). This was detested by God and Samuel conveyed the message of God to Saul in 1 Samuel 15:23 that God has rejected him from being king.
On the other hand we saw that David in 2 Samuel 11:2-17, committed adultery with the wife of Uriah, his soldier and went further to kill the man and though God punished him, he did not take the kingdom of Israel away from his family.
Looking at both cases, while Saul was remorseful, he did not show godly sorrow by going to The Lord to pray for mercy and forgiveness like David. 2 Samuel 12:13-16. Saul was more concerned about what the subjects would say about him as opposed to what God would say.
Hence if you want to win at all times, you must surrender all to Christ including your ego. This was done by David and that is why he won all the times. God is interested in us winning at all times provided we surrender our all to Him. Thus Apostel Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14a KJV
“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ… “
Prayer: Father, help me to surrender my total being to you and put you first in everything I do in Jesus name.
Bro. Biodun Oyapero