Challenges

I heard some things on challenges yesterday and I thought I would try to do a ‘Tidbit’ on it today.  Question: do you think King David was a real man of God?

This is what it says about him in 1 Samuel 13:14, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

It also says this in Acts 13:22, “And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’”

I have said this before in other Tidbits, David wasn’t a perfect man.  If you know much about him you know he sinned on many occasions and he also dealt with many challenges in his life.  We have been guilty of many sins also and we are also faced with many challenges.  David started out as a shepherd which was a challenge in itself because shepherds were like total outcasts.  In David’s day taking care of stinking sheep wasn’t considered the greatest occupation by far.  Shepherds lived with the sheep and smelled like the sheep.  Then there were the challenges of protecting the sheep from robbers and wild animals which David encountered.

Read what he said to King Saul when another challenge came his way, namely Goliath, in 1 Samuel 17:33-37:

“And Saul said to David, ‘You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.’

But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.’ Moreover David said, ‘The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’

And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you!’”

After defeating Goliath, David had many more challenges with King Saul and with the members of his own family.  Even though David failed at times he didn’t let the failures define who he was, he never gave into them.  David was truly a man after God’s own heart.

Challenges will come to believers but they can never defeat us unless we give into them and quit.  Challenges will help us become better people if we have a proper perspective.  We don’t always know why we face some of the challenges that we do but if we stay positive seeking the Lord to help us with them we can become better people because of them.  One of the things challenges show us is what is inside of us.  We can praise and thank the Lord when things are going good but what do we do when things aren’t going good, do we have the power within us to be overcomers?  

It isn’t hard to look like a believer or even talk like one and in the right settings to act like one, but when the challenges come that you can’t control and everything seems to be spinning out of control and even the Lord seems nowhere to be found, do you have the power within you to meet the challenge head on or do you crumble and run and become a deserter?  Sometimes people can be a challenge and you try to avoid them because they make you very mad and angry, but did you ever think that it is not the person that makes you mad, it is what is inside you that makes you mad, possibly jealousy or something else that needs to be dealt with in your life.  

David Jeremiah said this, “Challenges don’t make you who you are, they reveal who you are.”  So when the challenges come, and they will, stand strong and trust and rely on the Lord to help you overcome whatever they may be and remember these words in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

                                             

In spite of the inevitable challenges they, or we, would face, with the Lord’s help we can overcome them also.  Something to think about!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!