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Day 81, or March 22. What's your last resort? Our thoughts today are rooted in 1 Samuel

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30, verse 6. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him.

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Each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters, but David found strength

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in the Lord his God. First, the big picture surrounding this verse.

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The reign of Saul draws to a close shortly after he consults a medium in Endor. When

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she contacts Samuel, he has a message for Saul that I'm sure he didn't want to hear.

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What's more, the Lord will hand you and the army of Israel over to the Philistines tomorrow,

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and you and your sons will be here with me. The Lord will bring down the entire army of

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Israel in defeat. Chapter 28, verse 19. Significantly, Saul duly

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dies with three sons by his side, one of them being Jonathan. So David's path to the throne

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is cleared by the God he trusted all his life. And now our action step for today.

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During his very eventful life, David regularly found himself in a depressed state. When his

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enemies were having victories or the people were not at all supportive like they normally

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were, then his fallback position was always the same. He found strength in the Lord his

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God. It's interesting that God is not an anonymous power to which David turns, but

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someone he knows. It's not God, but his God. If this was our default position, wouldn't

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our lives and the health of our churches be improved beyond measure? We would stop hearing,

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why me? and why doesn't God do something? Instead we would hear, isn't God amazing,

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having all this under his control, even though it's far from clear to me? If you read some

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of the Psalms of David, he does complain, but not forever. In spite of circumstances,

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David rejoices in God's supremacy and finds strength in his God. This is a verse well

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worth remembering. You may like to put it on your mobile phone so that it's displayed

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every time you switch it on. I think a paraphrase is permitted here. I always find strength

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in the Lord my God.