Fight!

I feel like I am wrestling with God. Actually, it’s not just me but my family and I are, at least that’s the feeling. On a personal level, I believe I have been on this “in-between” phase where it seems nothing is going on, yet much is happening for a while. It’s quite an interesting phase to be in and at times it can get frustrating. It requires a lot of faith to keep going amidst the turbulences but God! If it weren’t for the Lord, I wouldn’t be here. If it weren’t for the Lord, my faith would have faltered. I am even more thankful to serve a God who loves me, holds me fast like the song says and ensures I get to my promise land with everything working out for my good and for His glory. I do not understand His matchless ways, but I am humbled and ever grateful, and I submit myself to His doing. Pain and trouble either bring you closer to God or far away, it reveals who you truly are. It’s as though trials’ goals are to prune you and bring you out like the precious metal you are in the Lord’s sight. The process is not what you want, nor is it something you would willingly wish on anyone, yet it is the path God has decided you must go on and only if you trust Him will you be able to see what is ahead. As I continue to press on in this difficult season of my life, I was encouraged by the faith of others around me and that particularly of David, the greatest king Israel ever had. So through this post my hope is to encourage you as well as the Lord encouraged me through David’s life.

I don’t know if you remember the story of David. He was one of eight, the youngest and surprisingly not the favourite. I find it puzzling that a last born was not the favourite one, that seems to often be the trend among families. Clearly, in the household of Jesse, things were different. David was chosen by God to become king of Israel. This selection process did not depend on any human factor. Indeed, if it wasn’t God choosing David, he would have never been a king by human standards seeing that his father himself didn’t think much of him not to mention Samuel the prophet who was to anoint him. Yet, God had a different plan. I love that God alone decides what He will do with us, and man’s opinion does not matter even if it is an opinion that comes from people who have authority over your life. Moreover, in the story of David, we see how obedience to God is to be exercised above personal feelings and opinions. Samuel obeyed God to go and anoint David as king despite not wanting to because he was still mourning Saul and pleading with God to restore and reinstate Saul back to kingdom (1 Samuel 16:1). In the story of David, God reminds us that he will uphold his covenant at all costs; that he looks at the heart and not the appearance and that he seeks for a servant, one whose heart is completely and totally devoted to Him. Even Samuel who was a great prophet, priest, and leader in Israel at the time must have been in awe at the holiness of God and his unchanging character through this entire process. This is a testament that there’s always room to learn and grow in the Lord. As soon as the Lord told Samuel that the new king of Israel was David, although unassuming to Samuel, he anointed David king in the presence of his brothers. Once David was anointed, we are told that “from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power” (1 Samuel 16:13). This is powerful, what was it like and what exactly does that mean? I suppose some of these questions, I’ll have to ask king David for myself in heaven. Suffice to say, that his life was never the same again. He may have gone back to sheep tending but it was different. In fact, one way we see it being different is in the relief David would bring to Saul whenever David played the harp as Saul was tormented by an evil spirit or how about the boldness of David when speaking and fighting the uncircumcised Philistine, Goliath who dared speak against the Lord’s people?

With David now being anointed king, one would think he would become a king right away. The anointing may have showed that David was God’s approved one, but it does not mean David was ready or fit to be a king yet. The Lord has His ways. So, He can choose you before the foundation of the world when you are still not ready and appoint you. The things of God are mindboggling when you think of them. How can you be appointed for a task you know nothing of yet? The beauty is that God actually sees you as the final product, never as the “work in progress”. He appoints you and He makes you into who you are meant to be or should I say who you are in His eyes? Such is the same with us who are in Christ. We have been redeemed and were chosen before the foundation of the world to be new creatures and yet, it is as we believe and walk in sanctification that we are made into the fullness of who we are in Christ. The bride of Christ who is the church undergoes the same process. She has been made perfect although she is messy today, yet Christ will be presenting her blameless and faultless on that great day (Colossians 1:22). He is the best husband! He takes what is filthy, makes it lovable and attractive, waits for her to be ready for him so that the two can begin their love story at last. I love that! Usually in a wedding setting, it’s often the bride that is excited about the whole thing but it’s quite clear that in this case, the husband is the most excited one and he cannot wait! I wonder how that day will be when the church is united with her husband at last. For what it’s worth, thank you Lord for being patient with us and waiting for that final day with such excitement. I can’t wait! Oh, what love!

When David was anointed, he knew he was meant to become king. One factor that he did not know was when he was meant to be king. David knew that as long as Saul was king, he was not to be king. David also never tried to force kingship. He never wanted to become king before his time. When was his time? Certainly not when Saul was around. David’s road to kingdom was such a long and painful one, filled with hardships on every side. The amount of struggle David had to endure to become king would suggest to the watching world that he was never anointed and that the idea of becoming a king was only that, an idea. But God spoke and He is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent. God simply had a different trajectory for David. He had to learn to fight, so he became a warrior, in fact the best to the extent that it was renown that David was a mighty warrior (2 Samuel 17:8). In addition, David learned what it meant to wait upon the Lord and he learned what delighting in the Lord truly means. We have the Psalms to showcase his love for God. It is only because of what David went through that he became the great king he was. I am always amazed at how much fight David had to put on, how much he had to be in hiding, how much he had to fight for his life while being anointed. He did things that were ridiculous, used all sorts of tricks to remain alive. For example, he acted like a fool before the king of Gath just so that he would not be handed over to Saul. On a human level, this is not what one that is ordained to be king must go through, yet that is precisely what David had to do. Had David not fought the way he did, he would not have become king of Israel, yet he was anointed. In the same way, had Joshua not fought to get the land God had promised to the Israelites, Israel would not have gotten those lands yet it was already “given to them” by the Lord. What I am trying to convey here is that, to fight is the portion of the righteous, the called, those who have surrendered to the life God has for them. Because the Lord is on our side, does not mean we have to fold our hands. We must fight, we must keep pressing, we must endure, we must wait on Him, we must persevere, and we must pray. There is no other way. The verse from Matthew highlights that idea well “from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12).

So then, like David sang in 2 Samuel 22 and like he has said in many other Psalms, it is good to wait on the Lord. He waited on the Lord and the Lord delivered him from all his enemies. Not only that, the Lord became his rock, his fortress, his stronghold, his deliverer, his refuge, his saviour. The reason you should wait for the salvation of the Lord instead of seeking your own is because no God saves like this God, Yahweh Sabbaoth. Isaiah puts it well when he says, “since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4). When you think of our own salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ brought about, when you see how he delivered us from our sins, who would have thought of such a way? Our situation was hopeless, we were dead in our trespasses, yet in Christ, God made a way. And not any type of way, the best way possible which comes with eternal benefits. Indeed, wait for His salvation and praise Him while you wait. Yes, praise Him with tears but praise Him still. Will you join me? I hope you do, and my prayer is that the Lord holds us fast. Amen.