In 1990 the music group, The Winans, released a song of which part of its lyrics read, ‘Trouble will come; Trouble will go; When it’s all said and done; One thing I know; It’s gonna be alright; That’s the way He planned it; Hold on.’
These are trying times. Sometimes, you feel your problems are beyond you. They test you to the limit. You try to convince yourself no one else is going through ‘stuff’ as you are. You just cannot go on.
We all face challenges in our lives. I believe it is not the challenges we face that carry the day, but what we do in the face of them.
There was a season in my life that I faced some dire challenges one after the other in quick overlapping succession and a friend admitted he was worried, and he wondered that I had not “gone insane, committed suicide” or the problems had not somehow killed me.
I have identified three choices people make in the face of life challenges: firstly, you can choose to RESPOND; secondly, you can choose to REACT; and thirdly you can choose to DO NOTHING! Whether your life is making progress in the face of challenges or not, can boil down to your choices.
Doing nothing is to play the ostrich or pretend there is either no problem or it will somehow go away on its own, just as it came. Playing the ostrich is not the way life works. Problems do not solve themselves.
More often, when left unattended, problems tend to become worse. You remember the saying, “A stitch in time saves nine!” If you avoid addressing a single problem, an additional nine could emanate from it. That ‘nine’ could be in quality, quantity, or both.
It is positive when you ‘respond’ to life’s challenges. It involves thinking and engaging in effective solutions that work. Reacting is quite different. Reacting involves doing things that compound problems. Moreover, most times you do not need to do much to compound issues.
I want to explain it like this. You have a medical problem that is been managed by a doctor who places you on medication. At your next appointment, he could say either that you are responding or you are reacting to the drugs.
The former is good news, it means that you are getting better, but the latter means, the drugs are making matters worse.
I never tire to study and learn from the life of David the man God, Israel’s prophet, psalmist and poet king, whom God declared as, “a man after my own heart, who will carry out all my wishes.” His passion for God was tremendous. He not only passionately sought to know Him, but also to do His will.
You love God, (Let us not debate that), but do you passionately seek to know Him and to do His will?
I want us to examine a particular situation in King David’s life, which is recorded in 1 Samuel chapters 29 and 30. It had been one victory after another for David in military campaigns against their enemies.
God was giving David success even in exile. Then by divine intervention, he came under the protection of the Philistine king, Achish. Imagine being under the favour and protection of an enemy!
However, a situation arose where David would have found himself fighting against his people, the Israelites, but relief came through a disagreement between King Achish and the kings allied with him.
Dismissed from the battlefront by Achish, David and his men returned to their base at Ziklag to …shock, horror and amazement! His family and those of his men had been captured and all they had was plundered.
Their families were more or less sitting ducks for the Amalekites who had encountered soft targets: women and children without the protection of their male warriors. Life presented David and his men with a tragedy that was not prepared for.
As though that were not enough after David’s distraught ‘men of valour’ had wept to the point that their tear glands had exhausted their production capacity, they then thought to use whatever strength it was they had left to stone him to death. David’s world stopped on its tracks.
You may never have faced a tragedy of the magnitude David did. (May you never see such a day!)
Nevertheless, challenges of life come your way. Some of them even come when you are ‘doing your best for God’ when all is so wonderful and nothing and no one had better dare to take away the shine off the season. Then things quickly change from, ‘Praise God, it is wonderful!’ to ‘Pray God, why me?’
What did David and his men do? They all wept for their families. Unless you are not human, we all have emotions that well up in our hearts when things happen- good or bad: The death of a loved one, a dog bite, getting a long-overdue promotion, the birth of a child, they stir up emotions, but after the emotions what next?
After David’s men were done weeping, they blamed him for the problem, they got angry and wanted to stone him.
When faced with challenges do you get angry, blame others as the cause of your problems, and then stone them with words or blows, or perhaps ‘bombard them with ‘Holy Ghost fire’ and brimstone?’
After David wept, (weeping is not lack of faith) ‘he encouraged himself in the Lord.’ Encouragement is required to rekindle strength. “David found strength in the Lord his God.”
If encouragement is not coming from others, you can encourage yourself. I can imagine David taking up his harp even with tears in his eyes and playing to memories of things God had done for him in the past. I can imagine him calling God to the remembrance of His promises (word) to protect and preserve him and his loved ones.
Space will not permit me to give testimonies of times I have worshiped and praised God into victory out of challenges in my life.
Secondly, David asked the priest, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” In those days, the ephod was used to find out God’s will and to get direction from Him. You must seek to know God’s will in the face of challenges. How does God want you to deal with them? This is very important.
Thirdly, David sought to get specific instructions on how to take on the challenge: “So David inquired of the Lord, saying ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And He answered him, ‘Pursue, for you shall surely overtake…”
When you pray and seek God’s opinion on a matter, be patient to wait for His answer. Do not just run of. God is eager to give you wisdom and solutions to life’s challenges.
Fourthly, David pursued, he acted on God’s answer. God may give you the kind of answer you are not expecting. When God tells you what to do, do it, for therein is the solution to the problem. A solution not acted upon is useless.
Fifthly, be sensitive to further leading and opportunities God may bring along the way.
On the way of acting on God’s word, they met a dying Egyptian slave that would show them the way and speed up the journey to victory.
God brings people and situations to help you along the way. Be sensitive to them. David did not abandon the Egyptian slave, thinking, ‘What can he do? Not only is he an Egyptian, but he is also a slave. Of what benefit can he be to me.’ No, be sensitive.
David took the Egyptian, and he showed them the way to victory. Do not despise anyone that God might use to bring you solutions or help in creating them.
Finally, grab your victory and share it with others. David overcame the enemy and returned to camp to share the spoil with those who could not come along. Its testimony time!
Prepare to overcome all of life’s challenges. Do not react by ‘throwing stones’ at others, rather respond by seeking God’s face and getting solutions from Him. After all, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it” I pray that He will give you the wisdom you require even in any situation you may be facing currently. Amen.
Thank you. Do not forget to keep Living, Loving and Learning.
References: Acts 13:22, ISV; 1 Samuel 29 and 30; 30:6b, NLT; 30:7, 8; James 1:5; Proverbs 10:22, NKJV.
The Winans, It’s Gonna be Alright: The album “Return,” 1990.
Very Encouraging. Thank you sir.
Thank you.