Avoiding Rationalization
1 Samuel 15:7-23
We were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.
We may feel we are ready to have God remove all our defects of character. At the same time, however, we may have unwittingly organized our lives in a way that preserves some of the defects that should be removed. We call this rationalization, and sometimes we don't even know we're doing it!
King Saul claimed to be fully committed to obeying God's will. He would have sworn that he was ready to have God remove all his defects of character, but he had kept a few, rationalizing them. Samuel confronted Saul about this: "_'And the LORD sent you on a mission and told you, "Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead." Why haven't you obeyed the LORD? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the LORD's sight?' 'But I did obey the LORD,' Saul insisted. 'I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.' But Samuel replied, 'What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice'_" (1 Samuel 15:18-22).
We need to ask God to show us the things we've rationalized into being acceptable. It is easy for us to overlook some of our defects. It may be helpful at this point in recovery to have someone else double-check our list.
Selective obedience is just another form of disobedience.
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