“…But David found strength in the Lord his God.”
1 Samuel 30:6 NLT
David had just gone through a phase of unfulfillment and despair, losing everything valuable to him. Even those who were negatively affected by his decisions wanted to kill him. How bad can it get?
I love how the theme of the whole Bible is one of loss and recovery. We see biblical characters lose something and then, through an action of God or man, gain back what they lost, with some extra.
It tells me something: that nothing is lost forever. No one is lost forever. There’s always a way to recover all that was lost. We only need to go to the one who can help.
David must have had inbuilt resilience that reminded him that he could find strength in God. For many people, that loss would get the best of them, and they’d forget who God is.
How can we ensure we go full cycle to recovery after experiencing a loss as we work?
The work we do will only sometimes be rosy. Sometimes it will feel like we’re dancing in a garden full of flowers and butterflies. Other times, it’ll feel like we’re walking on hot coal.
But when we experience loss, the only way to snap back like David and turn to God is if we have a track record of going to Him in the past when all was well.
Like AI, humans also have learned behaviours. Doing something a certain way over a period of time forms a pattern that we run automatically.
We see from the scriptures how David reverenced God, proclaiming His name and working from God’s strength. Yes, there was a phase where he made several wrong decisions as he fled King Saul, but he already had a pattern.
Now, once a loss occurred, that pattern kicked back in. It’s like the Holy Spirit bringing to his remembrance something David already knew how to do—turn to God.
If we don’t have a pattern of going to God for the smallest troubles, it will be difficult to find strength in God for the big ones without an external force helping us do it.
And we can’t rely on external forces to always help because those around David were ready to kill him, not encourage him.
The patterns we form today will help us tomorrow. We don’t need to wait for things to get bad before we practice getting strength from God. We can start now, even if we have all we need.
This way, when the day comes to recover something we just recently lost, we, like David, will find strength in God to do the right thing.
“I will make running to God my default response in all situations.”
If this hasn’t been your pattern before, give yourself time for it to take effect because you’ll need to learn it.
We too, can last through tough times and recover all if we don’t take the easy times for granted.
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