If someone were to ask you to sum up David's life what would you say? Well, he was not well liked by his brothers and was belittled often, he had a job that was not looked upon as important, he did some pretty amazing things like kill a lion and bear but no one seemed to know or care. He had a pretty amazing confidence and love for the Lord that moved him to run to fight someone 3 times his stature and won. But before that he was overlooked and wasn't even considered to go help with "important" tasks. After battling Goliath he was put to help King Saul who ended up being super jealous of him and tried to kill him... a lot even though he was super faithful in serving him. Eventually he was made King but really messed up his family life. He ended up committing adultery and murder. So here we have a hero from the Bible. What do we learn? God alone is worthy of our full confidence, people will fail us. Hope and security needs to be put in God alone. He is the only One worthy because He is the only One that will never let you down. Parents, friends, spouses, spiritual leaders. all of which David was will let us down. Our security and hope can't be put in people because they aren't capable of living up to our hopes. We can learn from them but they are not worthy of your 100% hope and faith. So how can you can tell if you are idolizing a person? What would be your reaction if that person failed? what would it do to your faith in God? Not only will others fail you, you will fail yourself. I fail myself a lot. Not only mentally, but emotionally, staying patient with my kids and with Austin, socially-in wanting to be always thinking of others but I find myself thinking about me again. Physically, having one more cup of coffee than I should, or too much sugar. Spiritually, in not trusting God in the midst of chaos. I fail and I know I am not alone. How depressing if my goal in life was to not fail. Unless I was really stupid, I would wake up one day and realize that I will never be perfect and then what? The Bible doesn't say, get it together and never fail. It says, "A righteous man falls 7 time and rises again." And God is not meaning, pull yourself up by the bootstraps but rather fix your eyes on Christ and know that Jesus died for that mistake too. God Redeems God is a redeeming God. Mistakes and sin don't make us unusable. There is no place for shame- if you are a follower of Jesus, you are not defined by your sin, you are defined by Jesus' blood. You are a child of the King. Satan wants to accuse you and tell you that you are less than you are. But God says, you are holy, pure, blameless, chosen, adopted, deeply and radically loved unconditionally, being used for His purposes. There is no place for guilt- if you have submitted your life to Jesus, you have been declared innocent. Your guilt was transferred to Christ the moment admit He was God and you have offended Him. No matter how much Satan or your old self wants to make you feel guilty, the reality is, you have been declared forgiven, innocent. There is no place condemnation for those in Christ. Our sin doesn't surprise God. Jesus came through the line of Bathsheba, a prostitute. God redeems at the expense of His own hurt. It's not about us getting it together but putting more hope in Gods ability through us than in our perfection. His redemption was at the expense of His own hurt. Took His own wrath to plow through bringing beauty in our sin-making Himself famous. He doesn't ignore it-He took on His wrath because of it. He deals with it and makes it a megaphone for His fame. God alone is worthy of your full confidence. Others will fail you and you will fail yourself but God never fails. His plans always succeed. So in the face of failure we have hope that we can not thwart God's plans. Others or us can not mess up what God wants to do so badly that it's beyond redemption. So put your hope in God. When your shut down or when others fail you. When you totally messed up, put your hope in God, the Redeemer and know that you are not beyond His reach. This is the hope God offers in the face of failure. * What are some ways you have seen God take failure or something bad or painful and make it beautiful? * What are some things in the past you are still waiting for God redeem/make beautiful? *What are some current things you have failed yourself or someone else has failed you? What promise of God can you cling to in that situation? About Laura![]() Laura, the founder of Missional Women is married and has six kids, two of whom are adopted. Laura and her husband have been missionaries to college students for 14 years serving with Master Plan Ministries where she is the Women's Development Coordinator. Laura has authored 5 books, including an award winning 12 week Bible Study on First Samuel, Beholding Him, Becoming Missional, Reach; How to Use Your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God, A Devotional Journey through Judges, and Discover God's Calling for Your Life. Most recently her resource for Bible studies, The Connect Cards was released by Cru Press. You can find her on facebook, twitter, pinterest, youtube, instagram, periscope, blab and her author site.
3 Comments
Phylis Vosta
2/24/2019 03:08:27 pm
This was an interesting article. I've just been studying David at church.
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Phylis Vosta
2/24/2019 07:19:12 pm
OK I read this again. Now i'm crying. You were talking to me. And I heard you. Thank you so much💕
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