Devotions for Week 2: David: Finding Peace When We Are Troubled (WATCH HERE)
Is today one of those days you didn’t feel like getting out of bed? Do you felt discouraged or despondent? Perhaps worried or anxious? Maybe you are struggling to see meaning and purpose in your day or life. Maybe a sin in your life is creating guilt and shame that you don’t feel like God can do something about. Your spirit is downcast.
No one likes these moments or seasons. At times you can “push through it.” You can embrace the motto, “Just keep moving” (even when you don’t feel like it). The sun will come out tomorrow…seems like the only positive perspective you can carry.
Is it possible that these moments or seasons where our hearts lack peace have a divine purpose? Would God allow them…let alone send them for a reason?
1 Samuel 16:14 says this, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.”
You might be able to understand the phrase, “the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul.” He had chosen to disobey the word of the Lord and act in a way contrary to the Lord’s direction when he fought against and defeated the Amalekites. It was the final straw that God rejected Saul and his family as future kings of Israel.
We can understand a pattern of pseudo obedience and half-hearted following of the Lord’s words would lead the Lord to anoint David as the next king. Saul’s heart had drifted from the Lord.
But the second phrase is more challenging. “…an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.” Thoughts first might turn to the question, “Did God send a demon to Saul?” No, this is not demon possession. However, it is a bad spirit that manifested in discouragement, despair and a depressed soul.
Saul’s spiritual condition was manifesting in a physical way.
When we drift from the Lord and his word of truth, the Lord allows a troubled spirit to torment us. Deuteronomy 28:58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— 59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. …64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. …There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
God had warned Israel hundreds of years before that when hearts drifted and deserted the Lord and his word, the Lord would send an anxious mind, despairing heart, and minds filled with dread…an evil spirit.
So today is an opportunity to sit with the emotions and ask, “What is God revealing about my heart?” Am I drifting from the Lord? Am I neglecting his word or ignoring it? Am I putting someone or something else as priority in my life?
Knowing God is good and everything he does is for our eternal good, perhaps his purpose in allowing an evil spirit to come to Saul and to us at times is to pause to understand where our heart is out of alignment with the Lord and take time to reorient all to the Lord.
For only there will the despair and despondency be replaced with peace and hope.
Reflect: What emotions have you felt recently? What do they communicate about your relationship with the Lord and his Word?
Prayer: Lord, when you send an evil spirit into my heart, allow me to see it as a gift to address what is out of alignment and with your Spirit’s power align all of my life to you. Grant me your forgiveness, power and peace in the process. AMEN.