Strength During Relational Trouble
When you are having trouble in your personal relationships, do you turn to God for strength and comfort?
Verse of the Day
‘David was now in great danger because all his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God.’
Today’s Devotional
Sometimes, the decisions we make affect other people. Living our lives with other people often creates drama. Drama in our relationships isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just a by-product of the difficulty of living in a community.
Today’s verse is about David, the man after God’s own heart. David’s men are angry with him because a group of warriors and raiders came and kidnapped all of the women and children while the men were away. It was David’s decision to leave the town in the first place, but David did not CAUSE the abduction of the families. It’s technically not David’s fault. He is not the bad guy here. But still, his men are mad enough to want to kill him.
There are several things that I want to make note of in this story.
- Grief and sadness don’t always lead to rational decisions. Big, hard emotions often make us behave in ways that are far different from our “normal” behavior. We need to be aware of this. We need to make allowances for it, both in ourselves and in others.
- People often get the blame for things they did not actually do. I might have done something that allowed for certain circumstances to exist which led to a bad thing happening. But I did not do the bad thing. Let’s be careful with our anger. Let’s make a choice to aim it in the correct direction. In our story today, David’s men should have been mad at the Amalekites, the ones that actually burned down their town and took off their families. But David was closer and easier to be mad at. They needed an outlet for their angst, and David was an easy target.
- David turned to God in his angst. His wives and children were gone. His town had been burned and destroyed. He did not know if his family was alive or dead. He did not know if he would ever see them again. I’m sure he was also tired from being away from home for a long time. Now his men, who he loved dearly, were mad enough to want him dead. And he turns to God for strength. I don’t know the specifics of what that looked like for David, but my guess is that he went somewhere to be alone with God. He probably cried and prayed. He probably poured out his heart to God in prayer. He probably told God that he could not put one foot in front of the other without God’s help.
If this isn’t the best recipe for how to handle relationship difficulties, then I don’t know what is. Relationships can be hard. Even really good relationships. Sometimes we need to take a step back and lean on God in the middle of our human relationships. We need to allow God to be the strength and the glue that holds our relationships together. That might look a little different for each of us. But I would guess that taking time to allow God to console us during relational difficulties can only make our relationships stronger.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How do you need to follow David’s example?
How can you take the time to be alone with God today?
How can you pour out your heart to God today, about whatever is on your heart?
How can you allow God to be your strength?
The Rest of the story…
David’s men did not kill him. Instead, they went together to find their families and rescue them from the Amalekites. According to First Samuel 30:18-20 “David got back everything the Amalekites had taken, and he rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing: small or great, son or daughter, nor anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back. He also recovered all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock.”