To Encourage You

1 Samuel 18:29 “So Saul was David’s enemy continually.”

Is there anything in your life that you wish would be different?  For example, are there people in your life that you’d rather not have to deal with, but there seems to be no escape?  Maybe it’s a boss, an employee, or a problematic neighbor.  Do you ever think, “Why me?!” Well, if you are a believer and if God is your Father in heaven, know that things are as they are for a reason.  That person who you’d rather be rid of may be part of your life and may be bringing grief into your life all in the providence of the God Who sees all and is sovereign over all.  Not only that, but “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

We have an example of this very thing in the lives of David and Saul, two lives that were deeply interconnected for such a long time.  In all of this, Saul was David’s mortal enemy. He sought to kill him time after time.  He was jealous of David, angry at him, and his actions bore this out continually.  Yet David was God’s anointed. He was called “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14).  Why on earth would David be placed in a situation after God had chosen him as the next king of Israel to have to deal continually with someone as wicked as Saul? 

Well, for one thing, as we are given the accounts of David’s interactions with Saul we are shown the great contrast of the righteous and the wicked. We have in these accounts one example after another of how God’s favor rested on David despite all the adversity in his life, and how God’s disfavor was evident in the life of Saul.  It was evident to people who were alive at that time and it is evident to everyone since that time who has read about these accounts in the Word of God.  It is often against a backdrop of adversity that the glory of God becomes more and more apparent to those who watch. Just the same, people are watching how we interact with others in our lives, including, and perhaps most conspicuously, with those who are bringing hardship or difficulty to us. 

So how are you interacting with an ungodly boss, a wayward child, or an unbelieving spouse?  The other people in your world are watching. What is it that they see?  Is it the contrast of righteousness with evil, or is there no contrast so that the opportunity to show God’s glory is missed? 

Another thing – it is often in the trials of life, trials often brought about as the result of the actions of others in our life, that God is working to refine us, to burn out the dross from our lives.  As gold is refined by fire, so the glorious work of God in our life is done, so often, through the fires of adversity.  And it is very likely that God is working toward things through the adversity, and specifically through the adversity brought about by difficult people, that He could not otherwise do in and through our lives.  And if you know and love God, isn’t that what you want? Don’t you want more than anything to bring glory to God? Well, know that it is often in adversity that that glory is best displayed.  That’s how it was for many examples we are given in the Scriptures. It was true of David, it was true of Job, it was true of Joseph, and it was true of Christ.  How should we think it would be different for us?

May God help us to see the difficulties of life, including the difficulties brought into our lives by difficult people, as God’s hand at work to bring glory to Himself in one way or another, for that’s exactly what’s going on.  It’s as Joseph said to his brothers who had hated him and sold him into slavery at the moment that the tables were turned and Joseph could have taken their lives: “’As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (Genesis 50:20-21). May God help us to follow the example of men like David and Joseph to the glory of God rather than to do the opposite, which is to live a life of futility as we see in the example of Saul.