DAILY BYTE
David and his band of misfits eventually worked their way out of living in a cave and established new lives for themselves at a small outpost called Ziklag. One day, David and his men returned from the day’s work to find that their wives and children had been stolen away by raiders.
The text tells us: ‘So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.’ And then for David it got even worse for the text goes onto say: ‘David was greatly distressed because his own men were talking about stoning him.’
I can’t imagine a lower point for anyone to be. To have your loved ones kidnapped, and then to hear the men you trust and love discuss killing you. However, in the midst of this grief and fear, this horrible faith-stretching moment, comes a most profoundly beautiful sentence of Scripture, ‘but David found strength in the Lord his God.’
Again we learn from David’s story that not even the very worst of life’s painful moments can take away our choice. Our choice to relentlessly hold onto faith in a loving God with a loving plan who promises that he will relentlessly hold onto us and never let us go!
If you have ever encountered, or find yourself in the middle of a life moment where everything has gone horribly wrong, may these Scriptural truths bring your heart encouragement.
Of course you will grieve and weep, and you may even have a breakdown on Gath’s gates. But perhaps you should also try to explore, even embrace this experience, for although it may be grossly unfair, it is still your only reality, it is the real world and a moment where you can choose to make your faith real.
Because the one thing that never need be taken away from you is your choice. The choice to relentlessly hold onto the God who has promised to relentlessly hold onto you. May you have the strength you need to embrace this new reality, as unfair as it may be, because you are still being embraced by God.
Because God IS loving and God HAS a loving purpose for your life! And there is no experience in earth, heaven or hell that can take that away from you ... unless you choose to let it.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, I give thanks to you because you are loving and you do have a loving plan for my life. Help me to make my faith real by embracing the reality of each situation in my life, as tough as it may be to do so. Help me to choose you and to relentlessly hold onto faith in you because I know you are relentlessly holding onto me. In Jesus name. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 Samuel 30. 1-6 NIV
David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. David's two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
