Last week we saw that David wanted
to build the Temple of the Lord for Him, but God said no, Solomon
will build it. David wasn't sour about it and he wasn't resentful,
he instead praised God for His good plans and he exalted Him on
high. And we learned that we should rest in His plans for our lives
as well. We should obtain confirmations as to the way forward for
us and then we should rest in that and trust God to know best for
our lives.
David did only what God wanted him
to do. And in the process he defeated the Philistines, Moab, the
Syrians, Hadadezer and the Edomites. And the Bible tells us
that:
"…the Lord preserved David
wherever he went." 2 Samuel 8:6, 14
David reigned over all of Israel.
He then remembered his promise to Jonathan and Saul to look after
their descendants. He enquired if any were left. The only one he
could find was Mephibosheth. He was the son of Jonathan. He was
lame in both his feet, because when he was small he fell out of the
arms of his nanny when she heard the news that Jonathan and Saul
were killed. So he was disabled.
David sent immediately for
Mephibosheth to come into his presence. Mephibosheth was scared to
death; he thought David was going to kill him. Instead David took
him in as a son and allowed him to eat at the King's table for the
rest of his life, and he gave him all the land that was Saul's, as
well as servants to work the land for him. David was very kind
towards him.
David was kind to the grandson of
the man who wanted to kill him. He could have acted differently, he
didn't have to stay true to his word, and no one would have
expected him to. But he was a man of honor, a man close to God's
heart and he kept his promise to Jonathan and Saul.
We should also keep to our word.
Jesus also spoke about it:
"Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and
your 'No', 'No'." Matthew 5:37
We should keep to what we said we
will do. No one might even remember what we said, but God does. Our
word should be our honor. I have had the privilege to work with
many Christians over the past couple of years. It has been mostly
wonderful, I say mostly, because the one thing that truly saddened
me was that people do not keep to their word. Christians especially
are very quick to say yes, to do 'the right thing', but when push
comes to shove, a whole lot of them dwindle away. It has truly
saddened me as I prepare for them, I do a whole lot of homework for
them and then they don't come as they promised they would. I know
that urgent things can come up that forces you to change your
plans, but for the most part people are not very apologetic or
worried that they have violated their word. This really upset me,
for I felt that they did not respect my time and my effort that I
put in, but then God revealed to me that that is how He feels most
of the time. This made me a different type of sad, I didn't feel
offended anymore, but I felt sad for His sake and also sorry
because I do the same thing to Him. It has happened a couple of
time that I set apart time for Him and then I get busy with other
things. Or I am in the middle of speaking to Him and then my phone
rings and I answer immediately and forget about my conversation
with Him after the phone call ends. I have repented of that and I
have made myself more aware of it, so that hopefully it doesn't
happen again in future!
Our 'Yes' should be our 'Yes' and
our 'No', 'No'. We shouldn't be like someone tossed around by the
waves of the ocean. God doesn't want us to be double-minded.
He wants us to be people that others can trust. He wants others to
look up to us and know that we will be there when we said we would.
And that we will do what we said we will do. We shouldn't act like
this world and jump for the next invitation that looks better than
the first. That is just sad. We should think before we answer, but
when we do commit, we must stick to what we said we would do. Then
when God sees that He can trust us to keep simple engagements and
follow through on our promises, He will entrust us with even more.
We should behave like mature children of God that can be trusted.
Then the keys of the Kingdom will be given unto us. Isn't that more
important than the next alluring invitation?
Father thank you that You keep all
Your promises. Thank you that we can trust You without a shadow of
a doubt. What a wonderful privilege that we have. We also want to
be trusted. We promise that we will think next time before we
promise anything and that we will follow through on our word just
like You do. We want to mature to be just like You Jesus. Amen