Good Monday Morning my Friends! In this week’s Devotional, we are going to look at the life of David today and how he walked through one of the most dreadful moments in his life and those who were with him. This is a story that the devil would like to make us think, there is no good answer here. OH, but GOD, who is always faithful and true to Himself, to you, and His Word.
I love this verse – Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
1 Samuel 30 (several verses)
1 Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way.
3 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep
David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was [a]grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened (encouraged) himself in the Lord his God.
Instead of accusing God for not taking care of their families, while they were out doing the will of God. Can we even begin to imagine the courage that it took to look to God for an answer to what seemed an impossibility to turn around. The verse states that “David encouraged himself” in the Lord. He did not allow these circumstances to devastate him, instead, he decided to be courageous, to be established, to prevail, to behave himself valiantly, to withstand!
7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?”
And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” This is so magnificent; God answered a resounding YES! Got get them and you will overtake them.
David and his men could have said, “no way, after all the fighting we’ve done, you want me to engage in battle again?” No, you bring them back, God, you should have……….. fill in the blank. This should never be our response in life. You and I are under the New Covenant which we are promised this –
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.”
Here is the “world overcoming” conclusion to trusting the Lord and His Word:
16 And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. (doesn’t this sound like the devil acting like he is the winner, when he knows he is not). It was just a matter of time for a Great Victory!
17 Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.
18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. 19 And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all. 20 Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock, and said, “This is David’s spoil.”
God is a restorer of what has been stolen. Talk to the Lord about your situation and ask for the answer. Get quiet, don’t preconceive the answer, it may be quite different than what you think. Meditate on these verses this week –
Jeremiah 30:17 – Zechariah 9:12 – James 5:15 – Joel 2:25-27
Remember, you are Loved, you are Righteous, and you are His!
So much encouragement in this teaching. Thank you dear Colleen. I was thinking about your email coming this morning….and it appeared! God bless you and David ❤️ Colleen from Massachusetts
Thank you Colleen for always encouraging us.
Praise the Lord for his word!!! Nothing of theirs was lacking!!! All was recovered!!!!
I needed this. I’m encouraging myself in the Lord right now. So much on my plate atm. Super thankful for this devotional to point me to Father in this needful time. Blessings to y’all in Jesus’s name 🙏
What a treasure to wake up to!
Thanks again Colleen!
Exactly what I needed to hear today, thank you!
Amazing! I needed to hear this in this exact moment. Thank you.
Dear Colleen, I was praying to my Father at the beginning of this year that one of the things He would do for me is to restore everything the enemy had stolen from me in an operation I had due to cancer. The Holy Spirit led me to a sermon from Joseph Prince shortly after this prayer about restoration and the scripture verse he used was Zechariah 9:12. I was already holding onto Jeremiah 30:17 has I believe this is another word the Holy Spirit gave me. But what was amazing was, before I opened your Monday morning message, I asked the LORD please speak to me through Colleen’s Monday morning message and you said ‘
God is a restorer of what has been stolen’ you also quoted the same scripture verse the Holy Spirit showed me and I was relying and believing on Jeremiah 9:12 & Jeremiah 30:17. May the Lord continue to bless your ministry has you encourage the children of God with His word. God bless 🙌 ❤️ 🇬🇧