All the vain things that charm me most

And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. – 1 Samuel 12v21

‘Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast. Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.’

I love a lot of the old hymns. One of my several favourites is ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.’ It never fails to move me and thus stanza came to mind when I came across this passage in 1 Samuel.

Samuel was preparing the nation for living under a king. He addressed the king and the people with some very basic instructions. In verse twenty he told the people to serve the Lord with all their hearts. Here in verse twenty-one we read something specific about that.

‘While you are serving the Lord don’t be turned aside, because then you will go after the empty things. They won’t profit you or deliver you from anything. The vain things are nothing.’

There is a lot of wisdom packed in this little verse. If we want a good Bible lesson on what is vain we can read and study the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon went so far as to say, ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’

The truth is pretty simple actually. We can examine God’s word to see what it can teach us about the ‘vain things’ that we have to deal with.

But I think it goes a little beyond that. If we are saved and striving to serve the Lord we know what these vain things are. As I type these words I know what vain things I have to deal with that tempt me away from faithful service. I would guess that most readers are doing the same right this moment. These are the ‘nothing things’ that can wreck our lives if we don’t deal with them.

The vain things are profitless, and useless. The vain things are nothing. Why do they have so much draw on us?

‘All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood?’