Going around again

Hi how are you all today? I am well and had a good day today- my first serving in kids church for many years. How was your week?

This week I want to look at the topic of going around again. We often consider this in terms of going around a mountain time and again until we have learned the lesson God is trying to teach us. But I believe that sometimes we go through or help others through situations that haven’t been resolved properly. Often this can happen in situations where we find it hard to forgive.

One of my amazing friends is calling this – tying up loose ends. So my question to all of us is- is God trying to tie up some loose ends in your life but you aren’t letting Him because of either fear or shame.

Last week I had to walk through a situation where someone else needed to tie up loose ends but because of the circumstances anxiety reared its head in my life. This can happen too. So how do we knot the thread and move on?

Let’s look at David in 1 Samuel before he became king. David defeated Goliath and became Saul’s armour bearer. But because David was getting more accolades than King Saul, he became jealous of David. This created so much tension that David eventually ran away from the palace. He lived in the wilderness but Saul continued to try and hunt him down to kill him.

However, there were two occasions that David could have defeated King Saul even though he was the hunted.

The first occurrence is found in 1 Samuel 24 starting at verse 1. King Saul was chasing David and he went into a cave to relieve himself. David and his men were hiding in the back of the cave. David crept up to Saul and cut off a piece of his robe. How he didn’t feel it is a miracle from God? As Saul was leaving the cave, David was upset by what he had done and in verse 5 in the Message Bible, it states:

⁵ Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. ⁶ He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” ⁷ With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

⁸ Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. ⁹ He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harmingyou’? ¹⁰ This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ 

Once David finished speaking the above words, they were reconciled and King Saul returned to the palace. What a happy ending or was it?

Have you ever had situations like this when you thought everything had been dealt with?

Let’s see what happens next?

A couple of chapters later, in chapter 26, King Saul started pursuing David again. All had not been resolved. David must have thought- not again.

This time David and one of his men crept into Saul’s camp and took his water jug and the spear. His man said in verse 8 in the Message Bible:

⁸ Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t strike him twice.”

⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? 

David again spared Saul’s life. Saul again returned home.

Surely this was the end of it. Yes but only because David made a decision to go to the land of the Philistines. It states in 1 Samuel 27: 4 that Saul no longer searched for him.

Sometimes in our own lives this can happen to us. We find ourselves in situations, not of our making, where we need to make the choice to leave it behind. Sometimes there can be no reconciliation. But there always must be forgiveness and no revenge. Notice, David did not avenge himself. He knew that one day God would work on his behalf to bring the promise of his kingship to pass.

The enemy fights us hard sometimes but it is not over our past but our future. God is still working on our behalf if we will do things His way.

So if a situation you thought was resolved visits you again, know that God has got you. Seek Him and knot off those loose ends. It is time to move forward into your destiny.

Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.

Karen