Trusting God Through Grief: Lessons from David

``The problem is is we we we do find it's easy to delay, postpone, procrastinate. You can call it whatever you want. Right? It's not stepping into walking in faith. Scripture never records that waiting is a good thing when it comes to repenting and and turning to God. Okay? And Saul kept putting off that obedience, and eventually, it became too late. James four fourteen reminds us, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. Every breath is a gift, every heartbeat a gift, and so often, I just take it for granted. I mean, I live my same routine. I do my same thing, and I think and then something tragic happens and it reminds me, oh, yeah. I'm here for a purpose, and that's to walk in obedience and to love God. [00:49:59] (55 seconds)  #ActInFaithNow

for the things I see is that grief doesn't really ever go away. It it's it's a friend that just shows up whenever you don't want it to. It not it doesn't even knock on the door. Right? It just it just shows up. I love how Lisa Appelos, she gives a picture of grief for believers, in her book, God of Comfort. She says it's it's really more like a three legged stool of emotions and questions and trust and hope, and that these three are simultaneous happening in our lives. Grief, death will bring lots of emotions and lots of questions. Right? But we trust. K? We don't grieve as those who have no hope. We we have hope, and we can trust that God is good and that he is sovereign. [00:31:01] (53 seconds)  #GriefWithHope

I don't intimate I tell you, I don't like grief. I don't like dealing with that. Now, I dealt with I mean, dealt with I'd had other deaths in my own family, but that one just hit hard. It was so weird. But we grieve, but we don't grieve without hope. K? We don't grieve without hope. We we even know that Jesus wept. Right? When Lazarus Lazarus passed away, John eleven thirty five, Jesus wept, but he knew resurrection was coming, and he still grieved. It was still there. grief is not a lack of faith. Some would say that grief is love with nowhere to go, and our hope is that we give you somewhere to go with that, and that is to Christ. [00:26:22] (50 seconds)  #BringGriefToChrist

God gave him a warning that he might change his ways, and yet he didn't. He was given a warning, but he never repented. First Chronicles, is it it chronicles the stories of first and second Samuel, first and second Kings Chronicles says this in chapter 10 verse 13, Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He did not repent. He did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse. God's warnings are for our good. Sometimes we miss them, and he's faithful to give them. [00:47:55] (49 seconds)  #HeedGodsWarnings

Okay? So from a human perspective, this battle at Gilboa looks like a disaster. It's strange to me that the king is killed and his sons, and yet so many others flood away. And as you look forward into the future, into the scripture, you'll see Abner also getting away. Israel lost the battle. The king died. It appears that the enemy won, but you know what? God's not freaking out yet or ever. He's he's not he's not worried. His plan is actually unfolding. [00:13:01] (38 seconds)  #GodsPlanUnfolding

While the disciples didn't understand Good Friday, Sunday hadn't come yet. Right? So often, we're living our lives in the midst of the chaos and disaster that we forget that God's redemption is right down the Road. Right? It's it's just right there. What do we need to do? We trust him. We trust him even when life doesn't make sense. Talking to some I think I mentioned last time that talking to somebody just, you know, as we pray, certainly we wanna pray as God would have us to pray. But do we trust him no matter what? Is that relationship is his presence? Are we trusting his presence to be with us regardless of what the outcome may may be? [00:15:27] (46 seconds)  #TrustDespiteChaos

It's interesting when you go to a funeral, isn't it? You learn so much about a person in such a very short time. Some of it's good. Usually, at celebration life, most of it's good. Sometimes, it's not so good, and I'm always weird to give somebody a mic. What story are they gonna tell? Oh, there's some doozy stories. Right? But you go to you go to the celebrate and this is like the celebration of life for Saul and and Jonathan that David is giving this lament. And notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't list all of Saul's failures. There were many, but he honors him with humility. refuses to dishonor. Now, does that mean you have to be dishonest about things? [00:42:09] (56 seconds)  #HonorInGrief

And some of us are carrying those burdens of grief and and pain and bitterness, We need to we need a place for that to go, and that's gonna happen in some processes for sure. we here's here's what we pull from this this Amalekite is this, is that we love our enemies, and we pray for those who persecute us. That's a rough saying. I don't want to. You wanna talk bad about me? Guess what? Let me just shed some light on that. Let me get some truth about your life. Watch this. Social media is full of it, is it not? When the world says get even, Jesus says love. The world says cancel them. Jesus says pray for them. The world says celebrate their downfall. [00:37:49] (49 seconds)  #HonorNotCancel