Wednesday – History

Reading – 1 Samuel 27-28

Highlight Verse:

“One day David said to Achish, “If it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city.””
‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭27‬:‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I want to point to this and say,

“See, David was a good ol’ country boy.”

But, let’s face it, at this stage in his life,

he became the dread pirate David.

He left the royal city so he could deceive Achish into thinking they were on the same team.

This wasn’t the best chapter in David’s life.

Discouragement from being constantly pursued by King Saul had worn him out

to the point of running to the Philistines and resorting to raiding enemy villages while he lived there.

He raided villages to the south of Israel so, when he came back, he could make it look like he had been raiding Israelite villages, strengthening his bond with Achish.

That was a bond that he should never have had in the first place.

He wasn’t making wise decisions.

And this is where I draw my thoughts from today.

When we are discouraged, we are vulnerable.

We might not go raiding enemy villages, but we may turn to the wrong people and try to keep them happy.

That didn’t work so well for David.

How do we deal with that discouragement?

We can surround ourselves with encouragers

– people who radiate wise advice while encouraging us to stay faithful.

Has discouragement ever led you to follow the wrong people?
How did you get through it?