Struggle, trials and pain followed. I strove and exhausted my strength in seeking for an answer. He was not to be found but yet so near. I looked to the left and He was not there and to the right but I could not see Him. My ways seemed dark and my pathway a steep road downward. I cried unto Him with all my heart, a child in desperate need. He did not enlighten my pathway but urged me on my way. I groped in the dark and walked like a drunk. I knew He was working on my behalf but yet I couldn’t see Him nor perceive His ways.
Looking back at those times, I can see why I had to walk that pathway. I’m glad He led me through it. It was for my eternal good. It was so that the cords that bound me were burnt and the blinders over my eyes were lifted. He was refining me and I was in the process of becoming pure gold. He had increased my depth for knowledge and poured out His treasures in the valleys of my heart.
David, anointed king by Samuel had to spend the early part of his life like a destitute. He hid in caves and wandered in the deserts, hunted down like a dog. Psalms 55:4 to 6 sums up his thoughts best, “My heart is in anguish within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me. I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest”.
Though those times in David’s life were very difficult, it was God that led him through that pathway. David stood refined and purified after them.
Out of those times came some of the greatest Psalms ever. In those times of despair, David prophesied the way the Messiah would die (Psalms 22, esp: verses 1, 16, and 18). Also little would have David realized that as he choose to do good to Saul in return for the evil he had done, he was preparing the way for Christ to do something similar and far greater one day. David got His kingdom by submitting himself unto God and not taking matters into his hand. It cost him a lot but it was worth the struggle and sorrow in the end. Christ came on the foundation laid by David and established his throne forever (2 Samuel 7:16).
Dear child, are you struggling today? Is there confusion and turmoil? Submit yourself into the hands of the potter. Let Him mold you and make you into His image. You will come forth as gold in the end. When you stand on the other side you will be glad at the many things he has accomplished in you during those times of trial and pain. He works in you for your own eternal good.
“God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist” – St Augustine
