One of the benefits of waiting well <3
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
We will be wearing green, even though no one will actually see us outside of our immediate family…but tradition is tradition.
If you can believe it, with all this extra time at home on my hands, I managed to get behind in my daily Bible reading…so this morning I did some catching up and I found a great little message in the opening pages of 2 Samuel.
King Saul has tried numerous times to kill David, even though David has done nothing but honor and support him. In a fierce battle with the Philistines, Saul dies. David will no longer be looking over his shoulder for the flying spears of this mad man.
He will be able to finally step into the role for which he was anointed so many years before and what is his first official act?
He mourns the death of Saul and his son, David’s beloved friend, Jonathan.
He writes a song of lament and teaches it to the people and in it he gives honor one more time to the fallen King of Israel.
In verse 23 of Chapter 1, he calls them “loved and delightful”.
Sure Jonathan, who had saved his life and tried to defend him, but Saul?
And in this we can see something about this man described as “a man after God’s own heart”.
David could mourn the death of a man who swore to be his enemy because he never made Saul his own enemy. His grief was pure and clean because his heart had been pure and clean.
He proved over and over again that he was loyal to this King because this king was a king because of the Sovereignty of God.
David waited well because he trusted God’s timing and reign over all the kingdoms of this world.
We are in a time of waiting, my friends.
We are waiting for an experiment of extreme disruption of life as we know it to see if we can avoid a national disaster.
We are waiting for the powers that be here on earth to make decisions and direct the course of business, education, health and the economy.
And during this time, the people of God…the ones who are desiring to be known as having His heart…we have choices to make each and every day.
Will we do what we need to do, what we are asked to do…but with a heart of faith that God is Sovereign over all?
Throughout these days when we are confined to our homes and the new way of doing things, we will have choices to make throughout each day with how we will direct our hearts and minds and activities.
I pray we choose to use the examples of those men and women of faith who have gone before us and we are proven at the end to have waited well.
In honor of St. Patty’s Day, here is a sweet Irish prayer for you and yours that applies to this time as well as any…
May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand <3
Traditional Irish prayer