Going on

1 Samuel 30:1-6

Flying ace Chuck Yeager has written a book with an inviting title: Press On! A guy with his adventurous background, plus a chest full of medals to prove it, probably has a lot to say about "pressing on." Few will ever know the thrill of breaking sound barriers, but all of us live with the daily challenge of pressing on. The question is how?

How does the patient go on after the physician breaks the news about the dreaded biopsy? How does the divorcée go on after the divorce is final? How does anyone press on when the bottom drops out?

I have recently discovered some principles from Scripture that have certainly come to my rescue. They emerge from the life of David when he and his fellow warriors were returning from battle. Exhausted, dirty, and anxious to get home, they came upon a scene that took their breath away. What was once their own quiet village was now smouldering ruins; their wives and children had been kidnapped by the same enemy forces that had burned their homes to the ground.

As if that were not bad enough, David's own men turned against him, and talk of mutiny swirled among the soldiers.

If ever a man felt like hanging it up, David must have at that moment. But he didn't.

What did he do instead? Read this very carefully: "But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God" (1 Samuel 30:6).

He got alone and poured his heart before the Lord...got things squared away vertically, which helped clear away the fog horizontally. He did not surrender to hard times.

Why not? How did he go on?

By refusing to focus on the present situation only.

What happens when we stay riveted to the present misery? One of two things: Either we blame someone (which can easily make us bitter), or we submerge in self-pity (which paralyzes us).

Instead of retaliating or curling up in a corner and licking his wounds, he called to mind that this event was no mistake. The Lord wasn't absent. On the contrary, He was in full control. Bruised and bloody, David faced the test head-on and refused to throw in the sponge.

When we get things squared away vertically, it helps clear away the fog horizontally.

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