For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever 2 Cor 4:17
Woke up with the thought about how God planned for Saul to be King so that David would go through the troubles that he did, in order that David’s faith would be totally on God to rescue him, in order that David would be a godly and good king, for a good and godly king cannot rule by his own wisdom, emotion, strength, ideas, resources and plans, but must be an obedient servant in total surrender to the hands and will of the master. It was a pre-ordained trouble that was to produce glory in David - the glory of an obedient and wise King who would rely on the wisdom and strength and deliverance on God alone, not only for himself but in order to bless and deliver the nation of Israel from both her natural enemies (the philistines) and spiritual enemies (idolatry and worship of false Gods).
David’s fate and path would be decided by God alone. David would not raise a finger against Saul when presented with the chance, because he knew it was God and God alone who would determine the boundaries of the times and seasons of his life, his time of deliverance, the time of his trial, the time of his prosperity, all these times would come from the timing of God alone. He was no longer impatient to get out of his trouble by whatever fleshly means at his disposal. He came into a state of total and absolute reliance and rock solid confidence in his God, his sustainer, his daily portion and strength and God alone was enough for him. So confident that he could speak to his enemy and I imagine what is going on in Davids mind and heart- "God sustained me and delivered you into my hand, but yet I would not sin against God by transgressing the will and timings of God, I would not act and decide in the flesh. He has sustained me, He will deliver me, He is enough for me even in the desert, He is enough!.” Compare David with Saul, who transgressed the timings and will and boundaries of God by offering the sacrifice, and yet David would not dare to, when offered the same temptation twice. It is a stark mirror for us to learn today from David’s faith and obedience to the living God.
To follow what God would have him do for today was his portion. To live daily with that primed focus on God. David who had ‘set the LORD at his right hand continually’. That special place that God alone occupied in this man’s heart was no accident. It was forged in the fires of trial and daily desperate reliance upon God alone. Fires which God watched over so that it would not consume His man. All joy all refreshing, his daily food and drink would be God and God alone. A glorious thought. So that his faith, his entire heart, soul, mind, emotions, might lean only on the strength of the Father, not sporadically but continually.
He would find life, liberty and freedom in the desert, a place of great constraint, of death threats and death spirits, even the valley of the shadow of death. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and the Spirit of the lord was on his man, but it needed to stay on David, and for the Spirit of the Lord to stay on a person, that person must want the Holy Spirit, must welcome and make much room for the Spirit of God in his life. That person must not be crowded out by other priorities.
So even our troubles are planned by the hand of God, there is comfort in the thought that God has seen my path even before I have experience it. Comfort that He knows how He will bring me through trouble, though I might not even have the slightest clue. I can have peace. I can have comfort in the thought that God has fore-ordained trouble for my highest glory and good, when we commit ourselves to Him totally to follow in all his way, it is a safe place in God.
He keeps us right exactly where we need to be. It is great place to seek to be led by the Holy Spirit, to seek the presence and power and wisdom of the Spirit of God to abide in Him and live under the shelter of His wings. It may be 5 years, it may be 10, it may be 20 years but to learn the lesson that God is our portion in trouble, and in times of peace is a precious lesson to learn - even Paul, Joseph, Daniel learnt it.
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