The story of David is always one of great encouragement for me. To see how God placed a calling on his life so early and how that calling was lived out and fulfilled. As I read about how the spirit of the Lord was upon him and how we can see the Lord working even in David's young life to defeat Goliath and the enemies of Israel long before he was even King, I find myself wondering - does God still place his call on people like this today and His is Spirit still working with them? I know intellectually the answer is "yes" but practically it is much more difficult to believe. I wish I had the narration that the Bible provides that as I walk through my daily life, I would hear this small voice in the background saying... "and Jim was able to accomplish this huge task because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him." Then I wouldn't be so inclined to let my pride creep in and take credit for His accomplishments in my life.
Of all the applications in David's life, I find myself thinking the most today about how he chose to extend grace to Saul on multiple occasions. He knew Saul was out to kill him. He'd been warned and at least once Saul physically came after him when they were in the same room. It was no secret that Saul had become a madman possessed by jealousy and the Spirit of the Lord had left him. Yet out of respect for the Lord's anointed, (regardless of Saul's irresponsibility to use that anointing for God's glory) David did not kill Saul 2 time when he could have. Surely we know that Murder is wrong... and we could easily say that David did not want to sin. And I'm sure this was some of it. Yet in that day, if an enemy had already tried to kill you - it probably would have been considered self defense for David to take care of it once and for all. The application in my life is this... I know that I'm not likely to kill anyone in today's culture. Yet I'm reminded that in Scripture God warns that anyone who is angry with his brother in his heart has already committed murder. So essentially I kill people every day... at least I kill the potential for them to see God in me because of my anger. If David could out of respect for God, extend grace to someone who was literally trying to off him, then why is it so difficult for me to forgive those who hurt me? Forgiveness is one thing... but restoring the relationship is something else. For example, recently a friendship of mine was violated. Not in a major way but some confidences were broken. It's very easy for me to get hurt and upset in a situation like this. The first thing I did was to go and tell someone else how this other friend had hurt me. Why didn't I try to restore the relationship rather than going and acting in my hurt? I didn't extend grace, rather I sought to have my anger validated from someone else and ultimately the relationship was damaged. You see, every day I have the opportunity to either murder or return good in the place of evil. I must confess that this an area that is very difficult for me... but I'm trying.
And on this topic of friendship, I'm so impressed with the friendship between David and Jonathon. There are so many examples here but for me I've got a fresh example. One of my closest friends is moving away. He and his family are moving about 2 hours from us. I know that friendship can endure miles, but for the last 2 years he has been the closest thing to Jonathon to me and now our regular conversations will not be so regular. Yet rather than wallow in self-pity, I praise God that I have gotten to know what a Jonathon-like relationship is like in this world.
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What started as a 90 day journey has turned into an on-going record of the ways in which God speaks to me, what He says and what He's challenging me with.
