Volume 124: Rest in Inquiry

 

Let's say hypothetically, you are returning home from a trip...

As you pull up in your driveway, you notice your house is burned to the ground...

And your family has been taken captive by the people that burned your house down...

What would you do?

A.) Absolutely freak out!!!

B.) Call the police and demand the culprit be punished!!!

C.) Pray and ask God what you should do...

Considering I freak out about muchhhhh smaller issues.... I don't imagine my first instinct would ever be Option C...

Just one reason we can learn a lot from our good friend, David, in 1 Samuel.

At this point in David's story, he had been running from Saul for a while, even had the chance to kill Saul twice, but is now hiding in the land of the Philistines...

If I were David, I would be a bit doubtful of God... 

I thought I was going to be King? 

How did it come to this? 

What have I done to deserve this? 

And now, after the Philistines reject David from fighting with them, despite the loyalty he's shown to Achish, David returns to Ziklag and "they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive."

"David was greatly distressed."

I would be thinking... Why, God! Why is everything going wrong? 

"But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."

"And David inquired of the Lord... 'Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?"

INQUIRED OF THE LORD.

Rather than allowing the emotional high of anger and sadness take over... Rather than taking matters into his own hands... He inquired of the Lord. 

Submitting to His Father in Heaven.

Acknowledging that God is in control. 

And trusting that God is ultimately good. 

It's easy to point out David's quickness to inquire of the Lord. But what's lying underneath that? I think it's that David had seen God provide in some really big ways up to this point of his life. He had seen God fight his battles against Goliath and Saul. 

Rather than forgetting the ways God had provided in his life (as we have seen the Israelites do over and over again), David allowed those to be a reminder to trust God and follow Him fully. To not live life on his own accord. 

I can be quick to forget all of the ways God has provided in my life. I am often very slow to inquire of the Lord. I don't always take the time to seek Him. And if I do, it's usually after I have sought other voices or worked through it myself...

Yet whether it's deciding what I will do next for work...

Or thinking through how to encourage a staff member...

Or the small daily choices I make each and every day...

May I inquire of the Lord, inviting Him into ALL of my life, and allowing Him to be the author of His story. For what great rest is found by surrendering to Him!

So may I be like David and inquire of the Lord, submitting to Him and seeking His will, not my own. 

If only God's answers were as obvious and immediate as they were to David huh....

Shoutout to the Chosen release of Season 5 parts 1 and 2... whew!! It's some good stuff. I have grown to love the characters so much throughout this show and have been dreading these days of Jesus's death...

These episodes do such a great job of showing the disciples asking Jesus questions and arguing with one another, trying to figure out what Jesus is talking about when He makes the statements that His time is ending etc. This helps us, viewers, to remember that even though we may be familiar with the events of Holy week, it had to have been quite emotional to actually live that week in real time...

I am thankful that these episodes have challenged me to enter into this Easter season with a freshness of the story. To try and hear it for the first time. Because wow, what a weighty and powerful story it is. May we not miss it this year!