Road to Grace

Psalm 16

Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.

I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."

As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.

I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Oh how I love David. Here he is the most unlikely candidate for the Lord's anointing. He is a young boy with 6 older brothers. He gets to hang out in the fields all day being a Shepherd. He is a young man with duty, that sings out to God through the loneliness in those fields. He has the time to practice with his lyre and his slingshot. Even then the Lord was preparing him for his role. Even then the Lord was working on his heart and building a love so strong that even through David's challenges, even through his adversities, even through his own sin, he is quick to repent, and quick to praise the Lord in all things.

David's story is a story of brokenness. Imagine at his young age a man coming and pouring oil over your head and knowing in your young mind that this means you will be king one day. Imagine getting in the right position to take the kingdom only to have Saul throw spears at you. He made some great friends along the way. But even as he was walking in his destiny, even as he knew what Samuel had told him as a young man, he had to flee and live in caves. He knew of authority and to not smite God's anointed. Even with Saul being in filled with jealousy against David and seeking him to kill him, David, the same young man that was able to kill the giant with his slingshot, never retaliated against God's chosen. Even as people sought after him, and they were the cream of the crop, can you imagine, thieves, liars, those also persecuted by King Saul ran to find David. David walked away from the kingdom alone. He didn't take anyone with him into the woods to create a revolt or a rebellion. He walked out a single man and took nothing with him.

He only had God. In those dark musky caves David cried to God. As he was going from his homeland to the new land God had for him, without even knowing where he was going. Thinking that he had been disqualified, thinking that Samuel must have made a mistake. He called upon the name of God.

God watched this man name David, have the opportunity to kill Saul, if we believe that everything is of God then we have to believe that God gave David that opportunity. But when we read 1 Samuel 24 we can again see David's heart submits to God and not to his own flesh. When someone is out to kill us, typically we would go into fight mode and want to slay the one that is against us. Oh that we learn the lesson from David. That we don't have to be our own defenders. That David's ability to submit to Saul even in that moment, even as he held the corner of Saul's robe, David forgave Saul and they were able to move past it. Saul, even looked at David and called him son. What a precious time this had to be for David. If he had done anything different it wouldn't have ended this way. There wouldn't have been reconciliation in that moment and David would have had to take an ever longer road to his destiny. But David knelt.

Graham Cooke tells us about Grace Growers in his book, Approaching the Heart of Prophesy, he states "To test us in this, God deliberately puts people around us who are meant to be loved by us. Often we will have to be very creative to love them; some of them, by design, are not easy to love. But those unlovable ones, ironically, teach us the most about God's heart."

I know that Saul was a grace grower to David and I know that I have grace growers in my own life. Don't worry I am not going to list them here because I don't want anyone seeing their name *giggle*. But how we chose to interact with those that God has placed in our life to grow our grace determines how long it takes to get to our destiny. Until we can submit, to their persecution, to them as God's chosen ones, they will continue to grow us up no matter how unpleasant it may be. And when you think about it...what if we are grace growers to someone else. I am pretty out there. Sometimes I know that I (not intentionally) intimidate people because I am a people person. I love to talk, I love to touch people. I love to. I really do. But what if there is someone in the crowd that that just crawls all over them. Am I a grace grower in their life? Yes, by all means it is a possibility.

So as we have grace growers, and are grace growers ourselves, let us have mercy on everyone around us. Let us love everyone with the love of Christ. How easy it would be to say "I just don't like her". But then my dear sweet cape wearers, we have spoken against God and the will he has for our life.

Father God, I love you. I really do. I say there is nothing that I wouldn't do for the kingdom of God but yet I do suffer with some of the Grace Growers that you have set in place just for me. Lord, even as I am a Grace Grower in someone elses life Lord, even as you use me in the same capacity, let me love and submit to others. Lord, I repent of my pride, I repent of thinking that the whole world revolves around me. That even in my times of growing, even in the times of stretching Lord, let not my pride keep me from loving those whom you have put into my life. Let me never be too busy, too occupied, too distracted to see them and to take the opportunity to show them your love. Lord, I pray for an increase in this area of my life. That even as I am moving forward that there would be more opportunities to love those whom I would have just walked by before. Lord, I love you and thank you for the inheritance that you have set out before me Lord. I pray that I am able through you to be salt and light in the world. Lord, even as I bear my own cross, let me take time to love those around me. It is in your Son's Mighty, Holy, Precious name, Christ Jesus, I pray. Amen.