How do You Handle Stress?

And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 30:1-6 KJV) (Read 1 Samuel 30:1-20)

And you think you are stressed out when you come home from a hard day's work. David and his men came home to total devastation. Their families taken captive, their posessions taken and their homes destroyed by fire. David and all that were with him wailed and cried aloud weeping until they could weep no more. All of them were in anguish including David but the men began to blame David and wanted to stone him. David had lost his two wives and his posessions also and his anguish and distress was the same as theirs at that point. The difference was in how the men and David approached the situation. We can learn here too.

There were two courses of action shown here in this situation. The one course was shown by the way that the men who had fought alongside David reacted and how they wanted to solve their perception of the problem at hand and the other was how David approached the whole thing.

The men who were grieved sought to lay blame on someone for the situation. David was where they decided to lay the blame for their troubles. Their reasoning could have been, after all if we hadn't been off with David doing battle we would still have our families and all of our posessions. They wanted to extract a pound of flesh. The question is this: would it have solved the real problem at hand? Their reasoning power was clouded and working from the feelings of their hurt, both mentally and emotionally. Have you ever been there and done that?

David on the other hand, even though he was the leader and had suffered the same losses as the others and was feeling the pain of it, took a different approach to the total problem at hand. He first encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Not reacting from feelings of the flesh but going to God. Encouraging himself in the Lord. David knew God and His nature, and the abilities of God to help in the time of trouble. He reflected on God and promises that he knew God had made. Next he sent for the priest Abiathar and asked him to bring the ephod to him. He then enquired of God concerning the problem that they all had and as to what he should do. He got God's answer and acted on it, pursued and recovered all for everybody concerned not just for himself.

The lesson I see here is that in times of stress and extreme stress we should not panic. We should not react from the hurts of our felsh and out of emotions with an irrational mindset or out of selfishness, concerned with only ourselves. We need to reflect on God, His nature and His unchanging Word and ask Him what to do, getting His direction and obeying his instructions to us. Then the solution to the real problem will benefit all concerned.

Blessings on Ya!
Pastor Kitner