[Life of David] Unlikely Trial, Teacher, TimingSample

Not Alone

Keep pursuing God even when you face trials. There may be things that you wish were over at this point, where you aren’t trusting God’s timing. Is a trial taking longer than you thought it would? Yes. Is it harder than you thought it would be? Yes. But know that God used the wilderness to shape David.  

In Galatians, you find that Paul spent three years in the desert learning from the Lord before visiting Jerusalem (Galatians 1:15–18). Then, he waited 14 years to return (Galatians 2:1). He didn’t just go from being Saul to being Paul all of a sudden. His salvation was instantaneous, but that was not the case with his Christian leadership. God used that time to develop Paul as a leader. He used 10 years to develop David as a leader. Saul pursued David, and David pursued God. 

God did not leave David alone. You are not alone in your trials either. In 1 Samuel 22:1, David's family is with him; in 22:2, 400 people join him; in 23:17, Jonathan, his best friend, comes around to encourage him. You are not alone. You may feel alone, but God is with you, and other people as well—your church family, even—to help you to make it through this journey. 

In the 19th century, John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, was being chased by cannibals. This is what he wrote: 

Being entirely at the mercy of such doubtful and vacillating friends, I, though perplexed, felt it best to obey. I climbed into the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the Savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe as in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among those chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! 

Alone, yet not alone. Paton was in a tree, cannibals were trying to kill him, and he sensed the presence of God. No matter how difficult or terrible the journey, God is with you.