Strengthen Yourself in the Lord (1 Samuel 29:4-30:19)

↠Setting the stage: David is on the run dealing with fear, rejection, and more…↠After Saul tries to take his life, David finds himself in a place of running/hiding and ends up joining the Philistines↠He and his “mighty men” are given Ziklag (their resting place, families there)↠Marching again to war & encountering more rejection (29:4)↠David & his men prepare to march with the Philistines again in battle↠The fight is against “his own people,” Philistine leadership tells him to return to Ziklag in fear David may turn against them↠The return home: Instead of rest and family, they find rubble (30:1-6)↠They return to Ziklag to find it burnt to the ground and their families gone↠The Amalekites had come while the city was unguarded↠If the Philistines had not rejected them, it may have been months before they would have come home to encounter what had taken place: beauty/grace↠”They wept until they had no more power to weep.”↠Intensity of their grief, all seemed lost, had their wives/children been killed?↠All seemed lost. No support, living on the run, wanted dead, rejection, and now adding another layer of hardship: family/homes/possessions gone↠Then the men he had poured his life into turned on him: his responsibility↠David makes a decision- Where does he turn? What is his response? (30:6b)↠It would be easy to give up, give in to the stoning, but he pulls from His life of experience in turning to the Lord (Ps. 51)- strengthens himself in the Lord↠Where/who do you run to in moments of catastrophe, hurt, pain, rejection?↠Strengthening had become a habit in David’s life- proactively building relationship↠We do not have specifics listed in this text, but we can look back at his life↠Since youth, he had “tended” his relationship with God, learned dependency↠He didn’t need to “escape,” he learned to “escape/rest in God” (Ps. 23:4)↠No one came to “minister” to him, he was alone, he had learned to minister to himself, we must learn the importance of ministering to ourselves↠He desired to be in the presence of God- must value presence (Ps. 27:4-5) Brother Lawrence: “Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God.”↠He knew to enter presence with praise (Ps. 100:4, Eph. 5:19), praise changes attitudes and atmospheres, stirs faith, releases His power↠David had learned to converse- prayer, Psalms is our birdseye into this↠As we pray in the presence, we learn to WAIT (Ps. 27:14, 62:5-7): “to bind together by twisting.” As we learn and grow in practicing the presence, prayer, praise/thanksgiving, and waiting upon the Lord then in the midst of it, we are strengthened because we are being bound together with Him- His character, His promises, His truth, His nature, etc. (Isa. 40:29-31)↠David comes out of that, puts on the ephod (garment of praise, seeking), and receives instruction from God- strengthened to victory, recovery of all, and ultimately into kingshipComment here