Are you faced with a problem that you don’t understand? I know I’ve got a few. There are relationship issues that haven’t sorted themselves out and some doors that are shut for no logical reason. There are questions with no obvious answers, family members who have been hurt unnecessarily, and challenges I wish weren’t there. How about you? How can we face those things without losing our faith and trust in God? And could they actually be God’s protection in some way?
Could That Problem Be God’s Protection?
Strengthened in the Lord
I have thought many times about something that happened in David’s life when he had every reason to be overwhelmed, discouraged, and even afraid. It’s tucked away in a passage from 1 Samuel 30.
David and his men had been off with the Philistines. In fact, they were planning to support them in battle. But in spite of his service to one of the Philistine leaders, the others didn’t trust him. So, he and his men were sent home.
That must have hurt. He had been running from King Saul who sought to kill him out of fear and mistrust. And now the Philistines had sent him packing. Then look what happened when he returned home to Ziklag:
Now it happened when David and his men came [home] to Ziklag on the third day, [they found] that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev (the South country) and on Ziklag, and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire; 2 and they had taken captive the women [and all] who were there, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off [to be used as slaves] and went on their way. 3 When David and his men came to the town, it was burned, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they were too exhausted to weep [any longer]. 5 Now David’s two wives had been captured, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. 6 Further, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all of them were embittered, each man for his sons and daughters. But David felt strengthened and encouraged in the Lord his God (1 Sam. 30, AMP).
The Battleground
David was a warrior but the biggest battles he faced were the same as ours. They were the ones that take place in our hearts and minds. So, how did David and how can we fight those mental battles?
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10.3-5, NKJV).
Imagine all those years running from Saul, being rejected by the Philistines, coming home and finding your family had been kidnapped, worrying about them, and now worried that your own men might stone you. How many of us would have given up or become angry at God for allowing all this?
David had to do the same thing we have to do when we’re tempted to quit trusting God. He had to take his thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, replace his doubts about God’s goodness and trustworthiness with truth, and remind himself of God’s promises. He had to remember God’s character and the things God had done in the past.
I don’t know exactly what that looked like or what David thought about. Maybe he remembered how God had protected him repeatedly since the time he was a shepherd boy. Maybe he remembered God’s promise through the Prophet Samuel. Whatever he thought about, it enabled him to be strengthened or encouraged in the Lord.
If you’re going through a test or trial, what things do you need to remember? What promises do you need to memorize and meditate on? Why not write them down and make it a point to think about them whenever anger, discouragement, or worry start to rise up in your heart?
Problems & God’s Protection?
But back to the question I posed in the title. Could the problem you’re experiencing be God’s protection in some way? Was it God’s protection in David’s life?
Let’s look back at 1 Samuel 28 for a minute:
1 Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, “You assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men.”
2 So David said to Achish, “Surely you know what your servant can do.”
And Achish said to David, “Therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever.”
According to John MacArthur in his Study Bible:
David appears to have been fully prepared to do battle on behalf of Achish against his enemies, namely Israel. In light of David’s former refusal to stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed (24: 6, 10; 26: 9, 11, 21), David might have been capitulating and compromising. He did not inquire of the Lord before going to live with Achish, nor did he inquire of the Lord as to whether he should go out to battle with Achish. On the other hand, it could be that while David gave the appearance of loyalty, he actually believed the Philistines would not let him go out to battle, just as it actually happened (cf. 27: 8– 12). The providence of God kept David from fighting against the Lord’s anointed and his own countrymen.
MacArthur, John. Holy Bible – ESV MacArthur Study Bible (pp. 1653-1654). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Either way, the Philistines’ rejection of David protected him from what would have been a horrible mistake to go to war against his own people.
God’s Protection in Your Life & Mine
I don’t have a crystal ball and I’m sure none of you do either. So, we won’t always know what God is up to in our own lives. But we have all seen examples where a relationship fell apart and years later that person’s character was revealed. Or when God allowed someone to lose a job and later provided a better one.
Once when our children were young, we moved into a new home. It was winter and we spend a cold night because the heater refused to come on. When we finally got a serviceman out, it had to be red-tagged because the heater was faulty and we all could have died in our sleep.
You probably have stories, too.
In some cases, we may never know the reason something doesn’t work out or we get hurt in some way. But we have God’s promises that He is using trials to grow and mature us and help us become more Christlike (Rom. 8.28-29; Jas. 1.2-4).
Our responsibility is to trust Him and seek to live obediently in the midst of any circumstances that come our way, knowing that everything in our lives is first filtered through His loving hands.
The Most Read Posts
Here are three of the most-read posts from the last month:
“What Does the Bible Say About Women’s Intuition?”
“10 Secrets to Finishing Well”
Other Recent Posts:
“Could You Be a Contentious Woman?”
“What Does Your Spending Say about What You Love & Worship?”
“The Eternal Cost of Anger & Disrespect”
“In a World Turned Upside Down”
“Fight Back When You’re Suffering or Mistreated”
“Finding Your Spiritual Gifts & Praying Effectively”
“Is There a Formula for Good Parenting?”
“Is It Good Advice or What You Want to Hear?”
I hope you’ll check out a couple.
Upcoming on the daily blog … loving your enemies, biblical grounds for divorce, what it means to fear God in our anti-Christian culture, the danger of an entitlement attitude, the importance of contentment and hard work, and the trap of worthless religion.
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them. If this post spoke to you, I would so appreciate it if you would share it on your favorite social media platform.
And if you don’t already have a copy, you might want to purchase a copy of my eBook, 10 Benefits of Keeping a Spiritual Journal. It’s available on Kindle or in paperback with 31 days of blank journaling pages with prompts to help you get started.
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
I sometimes LINKUP with these blogs.
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