1 Samuel 19:9-10 (NIV)
9 But an evil spirit from the Lord came
on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David
was playing the lyre, 10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear,
but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night
David made good his escape.
As Saul sought to take David’s life, David asked Jonathan,
Saul’s son, what he had done to cause Saul to be so angry that he would want to
kill him. David knew that he was innocent of wrongdoing, yet he knew that Saul
was the king and therefore he would not touch God’s anointed. (I Samuel
24:10) After being anointed by Samuel to be king, David
spent his early years running and hiding from Saul. The passage in I Samuel 19
describes an evil spirit that came upon Saul as he was sitting with the spear
in his hand. David eluded him as he had many times before. David was wronged.
He had done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment from Saul, yet he was not
going to retaliate.
In my own life, I have experienced times when I have felt
the pain of spears and have wanted to get even. We must see things, however,
from the perspective of heaven and replace our retaliation spears with the
mantle of love. Courageous leaders know that to be like Jesus, they must
abandon selfish ambition and vain conceit. It is by God’s supernatural grace
that we are able to retreat and not seek revenge. If we want to lead others, we
must love courageously and depend on God to protect and deliver us.
Has someone wronged you? Perhaps someone has said things
about you that were not true and damaged your reputation. The Lord may call you
to bring the truth into the light and confront the person. He may ask you to do
nothing. Regardless, we are called to be like Christ in our attitudes: Blessed
are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kind of evil
against you because of me. (Matthew 5:11) James tells us that we should
consider our trials as joy because the Lord will use them to develop our
character in Christ:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials
of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops
perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and
complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4) The Lord may be calling you to pray
for the person who has insulted or wronged you.
He may be asking you to lovingly confront the offense. But
regardless of His ultimate plan, He uses our willingness to not retaliate to
grow Christlike character in us. Although constraining ourselves from
retaliation goes against our human nature, God will see us through.
Thought for today: Is my response to an offense in line with
God?
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