Faith Like David: Part 2

For 2021 I spent the year praying for God to give me a heart like David’s. A heart after Him, a heart sensitive to His correction, a heart that wanted what He wanted. When I did this - I'll be honest- my intention for this was to become fearless. To stop being scared of answering God's call on my life. I had no idea that it would be so much more than just removing fear.

I never thought that praying this prayer would lead to a two-year battle of learning to love my enemies. Two years of constant betrayal, being lied on and attacked for no reason, and then being commanded to do nothing but love and pray for them. ( transparently, I failed to do this with the first couple of people… miserably. I answered their wrongdoing with HARSHER wrongdoings) And this post is not to say woe is me for having enemies. I would actually go through all these lessons again, but as I began reading the story of David repeatedly and then reflecting on my own life. I began to understand that through these interactions, there was an aspect of David's character that God was trying to highlight to me. People often regarded David as foolish for how he dealt with his enemies. He often forgave them and mourned their downfalls greatly. Joab, David's commanding officer, is quoted in the Bible telling David how foolish he believed David to be for loving those that cursed him, and he’s not the only one to confront David on this. David did periodically show love, forgiveness, and grace to his enemies.

In all of my hating and taking vengeance back on people, I had this one enemy that God refused to allow me to hate. Every time I would go to God in prayer with my usual whining about this person and be like, “They're a jerk. They’re an a$$. Fire and brimstone, God, come on!” He would attempt to pull my heart to forgiveness.

God would then show their spirit. How He loved them and called them, and had plans for their life. This was not only NOT, what I was used to BUT ALSO NOT WANTED. Imagine praying to God about the “bad guys” to hear Him reply with how much He loved them. BOOOOO

It was annoying; After I swallowed my pride of: “Why are you not talking about me? How can you love someone who is so awful to people.” I would leave my private time with some resolve like, “Oh wow, my bad, God! I must have missed that part of them before. I’ll try again,” — Only to then go back to interacting with that person in real life and be like, “Nah, God, there is NO WAY you meant them. You were talking about someone else, right?”

My flesh REFUSED to correlate the person I was seeing to who God was saying they were in the spirit. So when He asked me to forgive them, trust the seed He planted in them would eventually do right by me and others, and treat them as that person rather than who they were showing, my reaction was a “How in the world do I do that?!” I mean, I really struggled.

I've got it now, though. And I'm going to share - Do you want to know what it is?

God said, “ Lex, David's heart was after mine. He saw his enemies as I did, and I loved them. Everyone single one of his enemies were my children. Despite their actions, shortcomings, and mistakes, I choose them. David honored this, and he could do this because he understood my love and calling for him first.”

What does that mean? David knew who God had called him to be, and not only did he believe/ trust that calling, but he also knew how incredibly UNQUALIFIED he was for that calling. And if the Holiest of Hosts could turn his sinner rags clean and redeem his life from the field, place him on the thrown and make the promise of his bloodline reigning forever, then surely that SAME GOD could and would do that for his enemies. He could trust what God said about them even if they weren’t operating in the calling at that moment because of how God had already built up trust in David on his own life. David already trusted who God had been to him in his own story.

Now I see why David refused to harm a hair on Saul’s head and constantly referred to him as “God’s anointed. “ And his heart mourned their fall out, mourned Saul’s death, and openly displayed those emotions rather than having his heart act in anger back at Saul for his mistreatment.

If I truly trust God, then I have to trust EVERYTHING He says about me and, thus, everybody else. God has constantly been faithful to me. He is not a man that He should lie, so if He’s telling me to reflect on someone I wrote off because He loves and trusts them… If He’s promising me, they will eventually do right by me… then I have nothing to do but to forgive and trust God's words.

And not just with one person but with everyone I would previously deem “an enemy.” I won’t judge with my eyes anymore but rather my spirit. “Who does God say they are? How does He say to treat them back? What’s his opinion on the matter?”

Above anything or anyone else. I choose to believe and trust God.

I trust who He is to me.

I trust what He has said about my family.

I trust what He has said about my future marriage and my future kids.

I believe Jesus died for my sins.

I believe that He redeemed me.

And believe that He is the same redeeming God for “my enemies.”

He’s the same God.