Double for your Troubles

Hey my dearest readers! This post is a sermon from last Sunday. I hope you are encouraged from this like I was!

When you read 1 Samuel chapter 30, you will find out that when David and his men returned to Ziklag from a battle, they found out that the Amalekites had taken captive all their women and children. When they found out that their women and children had been taken as captives they wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep!

Here are 5 things that the pastor said we can learn from this passage.

1. Everyone has to go through a Ziklag experience. The men whose wives and kids had been taken away were planning to kill David. This made it all even worse for David. Verse 6 says that David was greatly distressed. It would have been super painful for him. He had been running from King Saul for his life. He was promised the kingship but all he got was more pain and fear of getting killed any minute. He had to live in caves, in open and in the most adverse situation, always watching out for any danger. And now to top it all he finds that all he had, all he had worked hard for is now taken away and his own fellow workers are now planning to kill him. The Ziklag experience is a place where David lost all hope. All that he had was lost. All he owned all he had ever worked for. Now it is all gone. He is all alone. All he got was pain after pain, loss after loss, and defeat after defeat.
   
   
   If you my friend are going through such a situation, just remember that GOD is not done working in your life. GOD is big enough to turn your disappointments into divine appointments. Romans 8:28 says,“ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” GOD is working in your situations.
2.          Gifts by GOD come in different wrappings. JESUS did not come the way people expected the Messiah would come. They never thought that the king who would bring salvation to the entire earth would be born in a manger. If you read 2 Samuel chapter 1 you will find that three days after they recovered their possessions and family, David received what was promised to him. He did become the king!
   
   
   It is amazing how exited we become when GOD promises us something. But when we don’t see it happening and end up waiting years, and sometimes we don’t just wait but also suffer during the wait, suffer so much that in the end we totally forget what GOD promised us. We stop asking for the promises to fulfil; now all we ask is for GOD to help us just get through each day. We forget our great calling; the truth is we stop believing that anything good can happen anymore. We have waited for so long that it just seems too late for anything good. We stop reasoning we just simply think what we have is all that we will ever have. We make our peace with it. Every small victory is what we end up celebrating. We just stop hoping for breakthroughs.
   
   
   Little did David know that he was so close to the day when all the promises will be fulfilled. On the third day he found out that all his enemies who were planning to kill him, were dead. Dear friends, I don’t know how close you are to your promise land. But, each day you are getting closer. Please don’t give up. Keep trying. The day will surely come. HE who promised you is faithful. Remind yourself every day, that something good is going to happen.
   
   
3.         Encourage yourself when you go through problems and difficulties. Though in verse 6 David was discouraged, in verse 7 he realizes that the only one who could encourage him was GOD and GOD alone. He enquires of GOD. And when he knew that GOD was with him, he was encouraged. It is good to acknowledge GOD in whatever we do. This all happened because he chose to ask for GOD’s will before he took any step ahead. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIM, and HE will make your paths straight.”
   
   Another way to encourage yourself is to always speak positive. I know it seems overwhelming to be the positive one when all around you is nothing but negative. But, Proverbs 12:6 says, “Our words have the power to destroy and the power to build up.” Don’t confess your fear but confess your faith.
4.        Victory is on its way don’t give up. Yesterday I saw this clip by Joyce Mayer where she said how easy it is for Satan to attack us when we lose all hope. It’s good to hope in the LORD. It’s good to remind ourselves every day that “something good is going to happen”. A hopeless Christian is a defeated Christian. We need to keep moving and keep hoping for a breakthrough.
   
   
5.           And last but not the least. You shall receive everything that you lost. Everything that the Satan took away from you will be restored back to you. You will receive double for all your troubles. Just like King David received everything that was taken from him, GOD will restore everything back to you.

That is what I pray happens to you my dear readers. May all that you lost be found in JESUS name. Amen.