1 Samuel – Chapter 25

1 Samuel 25 Daily DEVO …And he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him. 1 Samuel 25:17b – This small phrase is why we even have our story in chapter 25. David seeks help from a wealthy man, Nabal, and immediately Nabal rejects David and refuses to help in any way. Realize too that this phrase of Nabal being called worthless wasn’t being said by David in his anger. It was spoken by one of Nabal’s servants and even later again by his wife! Yet what I want us to see is what they meant by worthless; that no one could speak to him. That Nabal was so closed minded that no one could influence him or change the way he thought on things. While I realize there are things we need to stay steady with and not change on, if we refuse to listen and get the reputation by those around us that we are unwilling to listen and take in possible other ways of seeing things, we’ve closed off those relationships from growing any deeper. Especially with God, we need to be open to letting His Word change us so we can grow deeper with Him. If we refuse to change or refuse to listen to Him, how much growth will happen there? Unlike Nabal, be willing to listen and even change. To listen to your fellow brother and sister in Christ, listen to God, and even be willing to hear out those who don’t know Jesus yet. Your openness to listening to what they have to say will go a long way in them being open to what you have to say. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 425

Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good.” 1 Samuel 25:21 – Sometimes people won’t give to you like you’ve given to them. Here David was watching over this guy name Nabal’s shepherds the whole time they were out in the field. So David went to Nabal and asked for some food for his guys as a thank you for watching over Nabal’s men. Instead of showing kindness back to David’s kindness, Nabal rejected to help out David. Know this too will happen in our story, where someone will respond to our kindness with harshness. We must though not let this create bitterness in our heart towards them or keep us from showing kindness to others in the future. I know, much easier said than done, but this is the life of a follower of Jesus. Jesus offered life people and those very people crucified Him, yet He still showed them love and grace. If Jesus rose from the grave to show grace to even those who hurt Him, we can rise up out of our pity party to show love once again to the people who hurt us. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1650

Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. 1 Samuel 25:26 – David and his men are on the run and send word to a very wealthy man named Nabal to ask for provisions. While David’s crew had done him a blessing of keeping his servants safe, Nabal blew off David and refused to help. Infuriated at this, David takes his sword and is heading to Nabal’s house to wipe him out. Thankfully, Nabal’s wife comes out to David on his war path and pleads with him. She reminds David that this action would be sinful and would be taking matters into his own hands rather than trusting the Lord. We must understand that a sinful action done to us doesn’t give us a pass to sin in return. People will say harsh things, but that doesn’t mean we are allowed to say harsh things back. People will take from us, but we aren’t allowed then to take from others. We are to repay evil with good. We are to turn the other cheek. This can be so frustrating and difficult to do, but God is calling His followers to behave differently towards the sin done towards us. Trust Him with the revenge, show forgiveness to those who sinned against you, and be willing to pray for your enemies. Do not see this as the weak way out of dealing with conflict, see this as the holy way to handle conflict. Responding with holiness to the sin that is dealt towards us is what Jesus did, let us then behave like our Savior. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2902