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David's Challenge

David asked of the Lord: " Shall I pursue the troops?  Shall I overtake them?" And God answered him: "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." 1 Samuel 30:8

When it comes to your dreams, your heartfelt desires, grounded in goodness and love, of benefit to you or others, the answer is always: Pursue. Pursue with dedication, with a sense of vengeance, with all you have.  Let it all hang out.

David's town had been destroyed by his enemies, burnt to the ground; women and children taken captive. David got his wives back, along with everything else that was taken from him, and much more - the spoils of victory.  He got a  double portion for his trouble.

Calculate risks. Study. Organize.  Mobilize your resources.  Examine your strengths - the leverage you are going to bring to bear on the situation, but more than anything else  -  pray, consult with God.

In order to succeed, you must go beyond the perceived limits of your abilities. You must go into the Faith Zone, beyond the known, into the unknown, unseen, non-quantifiable, yet solid and unfailing, a trust in the Most Powerful.  You must remember, be thankful, more than anything else, remember the many times in the past he came through for you - when you thought that bill could not be paid, when you thought you could not come out of your physical or financial confinement;  you must remember the many times you were written off, but God wrote you in  all the time; you must remember when the rains came and you thought you would be washed away, but you found the Ark and you survived.  

Revive the memory, the memory of the many times God was so good to you.  Remember, if you remember, believe.  Trust.  He will be there this time, again. Again, and again.  David must have remembered how he killed Goliath with a simple sling shot but with a big faith in God. Armed with the goodness of God in the past, he knew God would come through for him again. 

Don't be like Elijah.  Elijah performed the miraculous feat of having God send fire from the heavens.  The animal sacrifices were roasted.  His enemies were consumed.  Yet when some angry woman threatened  him, when Jezebel threatened him,  he ran for his life.  He had forgotten how powerful his God was. Every now and then, we all suffer from short term memory.

Apply all the analytical processes and techniques you have acquired from experience and formal education.  Seek counsel from those who may know better than you do, but the answer, the overriding answer should come from God.  David pursued the troops - those who had taken from him his two wives and ransacked his town.  He got everything back and much more.

Faced with daunting odds, against billowing clouds, the answer to our situation should always come from God.  We should look to God for true answers. Sometimes,  we have to be at the very edge of the precipice, looking down at the crevice  below to become fully aware of the grandeur of God. But it doesn't have to be that way. God is mighty all the time.  My pastor once said: "If God has to move heaven and earth to get our attention, He will do it." That much I learned.

A. Izevbizua