I was reminded of the passage in scripture where David and his men have been out protecting Achish of the Philistines and return home to Ziklag to find that the Amelekites have attacked and taken all their women and children away captive.

This must have been a terrible ordeal for them. Their initial reaction was natural. They wept and they were in great distress. The men were even ready to stone David because of what had happened.

However despite all this 1 Samuel 30:6 describes a remarkable turnaround for David. The scripture recounts

“But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God”

That is a remarkable statement in the middle of everything that happened. His men were facing defeat, disappointment, failure and great hurt. He was getting the blame and it could have prevented them from going on and we may never have heard from David again.

What he chose to do was a key to ultimate victory in his situation and it is vital for us in the things we face today.
These things hit us all but our reaction can turn things around.

If you have been going through some stuff, today is the time to rise up. Notice David did not waste a moment. Song of Songs declares winter is past change is here.

The title of this article is pertinent. Victory suggests there has been a battle but success has come. Daily shows to us that this does not have to be a one off occasion. We can build consistency into our life. Walk suggests that this is something we have to keep on doing.

Events will try to pull you down. You can choose to allow them to penetrate your thinking and actions or you can make steps to enable them to bounce off.

David strengthened himself in the Lord. You also can strengthen yourself in God.

Now I recognise there may be times when things get bad and you may need help from pastors and friends or relatives. However this passage shows me there are things we can do ourselves. If you can strengthen yourself in the Lord then you have a testimony and you can strengthen others.

That is what David did. His first reaction was to go to the Lord.
He did not get strength from reminding himself that he had some mighty warriors with him. He found his strength IN the Lord.

He began to think about all that God had done for him in the past, how God had been with him and brought victory to his life. There is great joy in remembering what God has done for you. That joy is the strength of your life and it proved so for David.

Once his strength returned he could see clearly what to do.
He went to the priest and asked God what to do. He did not work it out for himself. That is something that too many of us do in tough times. We try to work out an answer and then maybe we turn to God when it is not working. David went to God first. He knew God well enough to realise that victory would only come with His direction and backing.

Jesus himself did the same for Jairus in Mark 5:21-43. Jairus comes to Jesus first when his daughter is ill. Despite all the bad reports that come, in verse 36 Jesus tells Jairus “do not be afraid only believe” That clearly strengthened Jairus, he believed and saw his daughter raised up.

In David’s case he followed God’s instruction to pursue after the captives, achieved a great victory and verse 19 of 1 Samuel 30 says that David recovered everything. There was nothing missing and nothing broken.

David walked his whole life like that. Although he had many character flaws and missed it many times victory was a daily walk for him. That daily walk can be the same for you.

More on this theme next month. Be blessed and choose to walk in victory.