Corona Devo 940

When I read I Chronicles 19 this morning, I shook my head.  They should have known better.  They should not have forced things and kept forcing things.  They should not have pushed their own agenda.  They should have learned from their losses instead of driving themselves and others forward and incurring more.  

And I wondered where I could find a real-life example to correlate with the Biblical one.

Fast-forward fourteen hours and I had a real-life example...me.

~~~

I had a plan.  God didn't plant it in my head, but I felt it was productive and possibly essential, so I set it in motion.  It involved a later-evening get-together at our house with another family with three small children.  On a school night.  After two soccer practices.  

It involved me arriving home minutes before or possibly at the same time as our guests.  It involved me assigning one of our children to "be me" in terms of vacuuming prior, setting out the food and tidying up the house.  I baked a cake.  I bought a fast-food dinner for the child I was at practice with so that they would eat in the car instead of at our house where we would (soon) have guests.  It also involved a lack-of-support for my "plan" from my husband, who champions most everything I do, except when he has a (spiritual) intuition that perhaps I should not be doing it.

And...I should not have been doing it.  All of it.  

To make a long story short, both soccer practices ran late,, the fast food meal I bought received verbal gratitude (Thanks, Mom!"), but I later found the full remnants in the carry-out bag because the child  did not enjoy what I chose.  

And to make this story very short: the guests did not show.

I should have known better.  I should not have forced things and kept forcing things.  I should not have pushed my own agenda.  I should have learned from my early losses instead of driving myself and my family forward and incurring more.  

~~~

In the course of time, Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son succeeded him as king. (2) David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.  ~I Chronicles 19:1-2

It was a nice thing that David was doing...sending his condolences for a fallen king (Nahash) to his son and successor, Hanun.

But Hanun's Ammorite commanders had a bad idea.  It wasn't God's idea, it was a plan they devised and hatched and moved forward rashly and carelessly with.  

“Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Haven’t his envoys come to you only to explore and spy out the country and overthrow it?” (4) So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved them, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.  ~I Chronicles 19:3-4

King David was very upset about his men being greatly humiliated (I Chronicles 19:5). 

It would have been a good time for Hanun and the Ammorites to retreat.  Apologize.  To get a new plan.  But they pushed forward in their pride and continued to force their plan, even if it meant involving more people, efforts, and money. 

The Ammonites ...sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and charioteers... (7) They hired thirty-two thousand chariots and charioteers...  I Chronicles 19:6-7

So now Hanun has hired an army and has a bad plan, and then David sends out his entire army of fighting men, led by his commander, Joab (I Chronicles 19:8).

And guess what happens?  

To make a long story short...David and Joab asked God into the plan, and deferred the outcome to Him: "Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.”  

And to make this story very short, David and Joab AND GOD won the battles:

Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. 

(15) When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they too fled... ~I Chronicles 19:14-15

But the bad guys still didn't learn.  they just kept spinning their wheels and making more bad plans:

(16) The Arameans...sent messengers and had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River... 

(17) When David was told of this...he advanced against them and formed his battle lines opposite them...to meet the Arameans in battle, and they fought against him. (18) But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers...  I Chronicles 19:16-18

They should have known better.  They should not have forced things and kept forcing things.  They should not have pushed their own agenda.  They should have learned from their losses instead of driving themselves and others forward and incurring more.  

But, I can't say that I haven't done the exact same things.  Even within the past 24 hours.

Let's take the pulse of our ideas and plans today.  Are they ours or God's?  Are we forcing our own agenda?  Are things difficult and continuing to be difficult?  Are we driving ourselves and others with prideful motives instead of Godly goals?

Dear Lord, where we should know better, forgive us and help us know better today.  Father, where we are forcing things, help us to relent and relax in You and Your will.  We submit to You, our Prince of Peace and we promise to press pause on pushing our own agenda today.  Lord, help us to learn from our losses and to protect those that we love from "our" plans, instead of Your plans.  Because of your grace and love, we can know better.  Amen.  

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com