Dear Friends,
This is the devotional that never got sent. Early yesterday
morning I had just finished writing it, but then before sending it I somehow
lost it and in spite of using my very limited technological efforts I was never
able to recover it. I hope there are some of you out there who can identify and
relate to my predicament. In any event, I am hoping to recover some of
yesterday’s thoughts to address a question that all of us have at one time or
another faced- “Why is this happening to me?”
David, Israel’s future king, had just witnessed the ransacking of
Ziglag, the city where his family and the families of his fighting men
were living. The city was completely plundered and everyone living in it was
captured and taken away by the raiding Amalekites. Making matters worse,
David's own men were ready to stone him, blaming him for the events which
had just transpired while they were in the hills on the run from King Saul.
“David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning
him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and
for his daughters" (1 Samuel 30:6a).
Ever felt like the whole world had turned against you and you had
no place to run? Maybe your household was under attack, your wife had become
distant, your children had turned against you, and those who once were your
friends had drifted away and now the enemy of discouragement, depression and
despair was standing on your doorstep.
Where is my pastor? Where are my friends? Where are the people who
once danced and celebrated my mighty victories and who sang, “ Saul has killed a thousand enemies;
David has killed ten thousand.”
When David had no place to look, but up, he realized he was
not alone, but that God was right there with him. We read ….”But David
encouraged himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6b).
While things around him looked grim, David was not about the
planning of some pity party Instead he chose to “encourage himself in the
Lord.” In Psalm 42:5, we read the shape and form that
encouragement took as he faced those “rock ready” enemies who once were
his friends.
He cries out, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so
disturbed within me? Put your hope in God. For I will yet praise him, my Savior
and my God.”
David knows that while the world may be crumbling all around him
and everyone has deserted him, he can look up to the One who was the source of
his salvation and ask himself, “Why are you feeling this way?” He knows his
hope is in God and because of that he will choose to praise him and thank
him and sing and talk to Him as he remembers and reflects upon all the great
things God has done for Him.
When we go through our tough times, why not remember what David
did to encourage himself and then turn to Isaiah 41:10 and read, “Fear
not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen
you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." That’s a
verse we should never forget."
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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