When the Going Gets Tough

Tuesday, 11th March 2008

The title of today's post happens to be the name of a song made popular in the 1980s by Billy Ocean, but I digress...

I've just completed the 2nd module of the Rhema Modular Studies that I have signed up for, which was on Principles of Spiritual Maturity.

The lecturer told us that one of the hallmarks of a person that is spiritually-mature is that he does not allow physical circumstances to overwhelm him. Rather, his trust is in the Lord.

She cited the example of David in 1 Sam 30. Here was a case when the Amalekites raided the camp where David and his men were staying, burned it to the ground and took captive their wives and children. The men blamed David for what happened and were so angry with him that they wanted to stone him to death.

Well guess what David did? We read in 1 Sam 30:6 that David "strengthened himself in the LORD".

By doing so, he was able to make decisions wisely. The Lord prompted him to seek out Abiathar the priest and to consult the Urim and Thummim that was found on the ephod. Through that, God told him to pursue the Amalekites -- and we read further down in verses 18 and 19 that "David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives. But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back."

That was not all. He and his men also obtained the spoils from the Amalekites, which means they ended up better off than they started off with!

Of course in today's context as New Covenant believers, we do not need to seek out a priest, since Jesus is our High Priest. Our current-day equivalent of the Urim and Thummim are the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

But the principle adopted by David can still be followed here. When the going gets tough, let's not allow our circumstances get the better of us. Let us instead strengthen ourselves in the Lord, and He will give us the wisdom to overcome those circumstances, and end up in a better position than what we started of with. Amen?

Interestingly enough, I did a BlueLetterBible search on the word "strengthened" which is chazaq חזק (H2388), and discovered that it is the very same word that is used to describe Pharoah when he "hardened" his heart against the Israelites.

It is also the same word used in 1 Chron 16:9a that is translated into strongly support, viz "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those who heart is completely His."