Follow God Beyond Yourself

Follow God Beyond Yourself

1 Samuel 23

David seeks the Lord and is successful, even at great risk.

            David and his men seem to only barely stay one step ahead of Saul as they roam through the wilderness, hiding from the kind that seeks his life. In the midst of this cat and mouse game David gets word that a Judean city is under attack by the Philistines, the current greatest enemies to Israel. His heart tells him to intervene for the people he loves but his head knows that it would be incredibly risky, exposing him and his men to King Saul. He does the right thing and seeks the Lord’s direction in the matter. Remember David now has a priest tagging along with his band of misfits. The Lord says go and they save the city.

            Of course Saul finds out and jumps at the opportunity to pin David in to a fortified city where he can’t escape. David again does the right thing and seeks the Lord for weather to stay for flee. They flee at God’s direction and continue to live a life on the run.

Jonathan encourages David

            Even though David knows that he is the promised next king of Israel, his mediate desperate circumstances must have been exhausting and discouraging. The current king was literally pursuing him to kill him and he never knew from day to day how desperately he would need to run. Enter Jonathan once again perhaps his only trusted friend. Jonathan is an amazing friend once again for at least 3 reason. First, he risks his own life by committing an act of treason against his father to seek out David and encourage him. Second, this is literally the son of the King, and by all rights the next legitimate heir to the throne, who loves his friend and his God more than the riches and power that could be his. Lastly he goes to his friend not just to encourage him and renew their friendship, but he strengthens his hand in God. He knows that what David needs more than anything else is the hand of God at work in his life and this is what he seeks to encourage David with.

God is faithful to his promises

 Shortly after this the men in the wilderness that David and his men are staying in rat him out and they are once again on the run from Saul. This time Saul is literally on the opposite side of a hill from David and closing in quickly when all of a sudden Saul gets a report that Philistines are attacking the borderlands. David is saved by a hairs breathe. He lives another day by God’s direction, the God who is faithful and will keep His promises.

Lessons:

            The safest place we can ever be is in the will of God. David’s story has proven this to us over and over again and we need to hear it and live it out. God might call you to something risky, at least by your perception but really the riskiest thing you could do is ignore our outright deny the voice of God in your life.

            We all need godly friends who will be there to encourage us to do the will of God even in the midst of what seems to be a hopeless situation. We also need to be that selfless, loving friend to others. Who can you be a Jonathan to?

            God keeps his promises even if we have a hard time knowing how He is going to accomplish them. He often will put us in situations where we are forced to trust him because He knows that we wouldn't otherwise. When we trust God and do what he says, even in the midst of scary or difficult circumstances and we see Him deliver us, our faith can be strengthened in ways that it never would be otherwise.