He is our Strength

“But David found strength in the Lord his God”.  An amazingly beautiful and inspiring verse hidden in 1Samuel 30:6. David and his motley crew of men had just been humiliated and sent back from the battlefield by the Philistine generals with whom he had aligned for some time and living with in Ziklag. To make matters worse when they returned to Ziklag, to their horror they found their place raided by the Amalekites, their wives and children were taken captives and everything that they fought for was gone.  

The response of these battle hardened fighters was pretty unusual, they cried!! in fact they wailed! Do men cry?  Brave men don't or should not cry and show weakness right?  Isn’t that what we were told from childhood?  But here Bible records that these tough men cried loudly till they had no strength left to cry. Probably some might argue, because it was an all men group and no women were around, they cried. No inhibitions in showing weakness, Just kidding!  But the point here is that all of them had lost their dear ones, they were deeply grieved, they were sad and angry, frustrated and dejected, and they had no hesitation in showing it out, transparent and open. David, their leader too had lost everything, but no one cared about it at that moment, tempers were raising, the blame game was on, they were pointing fingers at David, their boss, it reached the extent of threatening to stone and kill David.  It is not an easy place to be in.  When your own men blame you and turn against you, when they reject you and want to finish you off, that is the most difficult place to be in, a terrible situation to find yourself in. Given the circumstances one would feel hopeless and helpless, Bible says David was greatly upset vs 6. He was absolutely distressed. Verse 6 is very interesting, “David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.” It is that little word “But” that makes all the difference, in contrast to all that was happening around him and all that he was going through, yet! That is where the class and mettle of this man come out, no wonder why the bible calls him as a ‘man after Gods own heart’. As the story progresses, David goes on to seek the Lords direction and pursues the enemy, defeats them and safely gets back all they lost. 

Imagine if we go through a similar situation, how would we respond? When we lose something which we hold dear, when somebody snatches away what we hold  precious from our lives, or when people whom we love who we work with and  lead, rise up against us, pull us down, defame us and want to finish us off. What will be our reaction?  Angry, upset, distressed or we will be looking for other options, important people to call for help, major connections in our contact list who can make things happen or sometimes we will go to the extreme of being shell shocked and go into a complete paralysis mode.  Do we turn to God immediately? Is that our natural reflex action? Do we make him our first resort of help or the last resort after trying out everything else that is humanly possible? Where do we draw our strength from? When faced with adverse situations sometimes our first impulse will be to pick up our phone and ring up people who we think will help us get out of it or provide a solution but the reality is that they might fail miserably. Depending on men will fail, chariots and horses might be of no use, high connections and politicians might be of no help, there might not be any logical way forward depending on our own human understanding but we can find our strength in the Lord. He will never fail. 

Elijah was another man caught in the turmoil of life and death, running away from his formidable adversary queen Jezebel who had threatened him with retribution. Elijah fearing for his very life fled far away, the irony is that, this is right after his phenomenal victory on Mount Carmel, unbelievable right!! Fear can really play havoc even in very strong minds, he is dejected, depressed and wants God to take his life. But under that broom bush tree he was strengthened by the Lord and was entrusted with an even greater mission.  As we walk through the valleys of life, sometimes all alone, sometimes rejected, sometimes depressed and distressed, it is an amazing experience to find our strength in the Lord, it is like getting that second wind of breath midway in a marathon, there is no better place than His presence to find it, there is no better way than worship to enjoy it. And once we find it nothing absolutely nothing can stop us, we can go forward and face any adversity knowing that the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world.