When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and how much his daughter Michal loved him, Saul became even more afraid of him, and he remained David’s enemy for the rest of his life.
Memory Verse: When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7
Has it ever come to your attention that some people have so much of a pleasing personality they can walk into a room and wow everyone seated in just a minute? Such people have the ability to steal your heart even before they say a thing or two.
They have what it takes to win over the audience and even better, they have the tendency to say what people want to hear or do what people want to see and in that minute two things may happen. The first being they immediately win genuine people’s heart but also immediately take on board people who spontaneously despise them for no good reason. The spirit of envy, jealousy and hatred finds its way into the hearts of some and they cannot help but see only negativity in all that people see positivity in. To make things worse, those who love and cheer that individual up unintentionally create enemies for them and the rest is history.
We have been discussing the life of David and we see today how Saul made himself an enemy for life. Contrary to what we think, most times success does not always attract more genuine people into our lives, in fact it does the opposite. People may become fans as a result of how successful we have become but among those followers a huge population are on the opposite just waiting for updates about our lives to see where it may go wrong, the reason being because we have something special inside of us; God glory, grace, excellence or whichever you choose to call it.
David was just being himself when he fought Goliath but recognition came with such great achievement so he became famous and even better David became so successful at every assignment the king gave to him after that battle because the Lord was with him. In light of this, the Israelites excitement and recognition of the little shepherd boy’s achievement unknowingly birthed seeds of jealousy in Saul’s heart.
Without thinking about what their actions might give rise to, the Israelites composed a song saying “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousand!” 1Samuel 18:5-7 and since then Saul had harbored hatred in his heart towards David. This hatred finally developed into life time enmity when Saul found out that even his daughter loved David and this crumbed the entire relationship.
Your progress does attract enmity for no good reason and some people even make it their life’s mission to hate you, all of which you may spend time wondering why such is happening and even try to see ways of pleasing those individuals but as we see in the life of David, people will be your lifetime enemies not because you have done any wrong but because the glory of the Lord radiates all over you. Like David, it becomes evident to the world.
As a child of God, our response to such situations is not to spend time and energy trying to win people over but continue to focus on that which the Lord has appointed us to do. With new enemies or life time enemies, the battles will always be the Lord’s and any attempt to physically fight the enemy will result in a waste of time and cause distraction to your life’s journey. That’s why you see David spent to minute plotting evil in return to Saul but continued to serve the king faithfully and even when he had the chance to kill Saul off, he held back.
There will be enemies and even more lifetime enemies which no amount of apologies can win over and unless we acknowledge that, the devil may be using them as an entry point or distraction to our lives. Our response to such is not to face the enemy physically or try to begin to live to please them but to continue focusing on pleasing God and see Him fight our battles for us. Anyone standing against you stands against the Lord Exodus 14:14.
PRAYERS:
- Father I thank you for another wonderful day in your presence
- Thank you for your anointing and grace visible over my life
- Help me Lord to focus on my assignment as you make me an achiever in life
- Help me to look not to the material gains which comes with achievements but to press on the upward way, looking unto you alone, the author and the finisher of my faith.
- Forgive me of all my shortcomings O Lord and let your mercy prevail over judgement
- Thank you Lord for answers to prayers, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
