Day 5

DIFFICULTY AND DANGER

"...for I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content." Phil. 4:11

Waiting is made much worse when we have to handle people in delicate situations at the same time. Imaging waiting for the dentist while talking to a nervous old lady with her collection of horrific experiences; or waiting to start a new job but having to help the man who has just been dismissed from that job. Life is like that, we often have to deal with several difficult things at the same time.

David must have been excited, awed and fearful after his anointing by Samuel but he had to wait for God's leading. In the mean time he had to learn to handle people and not allow them to taint his view of himself and his future. Eliab, David's older brother, accused him unjustly of being conceited and wicked (1 Sam. 16:26-32). Then he had to play to the king whom God had rejected and whose place he had been chosen to fill (1 Sam. 16:19-23). Later he had to handle the praise and adulation of the people and his fellow officers (1 Sam. 18:5,16) and the dangerous jealousy of Saul (18:6-8) who planned to trap him by promises of marriage to first one daughter then another (1 Sam. 18:17-28).

What enabled David to remain unruffled in the face of the provocation he received from others?

Do you think the attitude expressed in our discover text is a practical possibility for Christians today?

Look up David's declaration of his philosophy in Psalm 37:1-24