Time To Draw Strength From God – By Babatunde Olugboji

In Samuel 30, the Bible discusses how the Amalekites raided the Negev and Ziklag, attacking and burning Ziklag, David’s headquarters at the time. The enemies also took captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them but carried them off as they went on their way.

“When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So, David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.” (1 Sam. 30: 3-4).

Have you been in a situation when you are completely in shock and you don’t know what to say, who to approach for help, where to go, and whom to trust? A time when you are in turmoil and you couldn’t see a way out of a conundrum? David was in such a situation. The Amalekites violated his home while he was away, committed arson, took wives and kids, and left nothing but ruins. David and his men broke down and wept until they had no more power to weep. Have you ever been in so much pain that you’ve cried and couldn’t cry no more?

They were devastated, and in the midst of the cry, chaos, and ruins, David’s men wanted somebody to hold accountable and they decided to blame him. They even contemplated stoning him. Do you know how difficult the situation would have been for David?

Is there someone reading this today who has suffered from being wrongly blamed before? At Ziklag, David’s men turned on him. If you’ve been a leader long enough, you will know that the mood of people you lead often swings. People talk to you in the morning and everything was okay, but by afternoon something could have ticked them off.

People are with you during the day and against you at night, you go from being a hero to a zero in a manner of minutes, as colleagues who love you today may hate you tomorrow for no discernable reason. Friends of today become your worst enemy tomorrow, they support you this week and turn on you the following week; they pat you on the back one moment and stab you in the back the next. That’s the way of the world.

David was distressed, trapped in a place where there seemed to be no exit. He had no friend, he was all by himself, the men that was with him in battle, who pledged to die with him, now wanted to kill him. The good thing was that David strengthened himself in the Lord. He knew that he had a situation and that he could only draw strength from God.

You may find yourself trapped between the rock and the hard place, you look over your shoulder and all you see is Pharaoh and his best chariots, and in front of you is the red sea. What you do in such a situation is to draw strength from God, who is our present help in time of need (Psm. 46:1).

This week, you’ve got to draw strength from God like David did, leave everything in God’s hand and you will see God’s hand in everything. David’s story ended well, yours too shall end well.

Kingdom Dynamics, a weekly column is written by Dr. Babatunde Olugboji, the President, Kingdom House, a non-profit organization in New Jersey, USA.