Some disasters, be they personal or professional, moral or familial, feel humanly impossible to overcome. When the flame of hope is but a flicker and expectation has all but died, simply “going through the motions” feels like all that’s left. But not so with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
King David knew this despair. Imagine his misgivings, his shame, and the remorse he felt as his own unnatural son, Absalom, seized his kingdom, took his wives, and actively sought to take his very life. Compounding this bitterness, many in the nation preferred Absalom to David, the ruler who had risked his life for the nation on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was one of those tragedies from which one doesn’t recover. David himself said it best, having apparently been told what the people were saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.”\u2014 Psalms 3:2<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What hope is there when those around you have given in to despair? In their estimation, David could never recover himself from this. Even God, they concluded, refused to help him. There seemed nothing left but to die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, David, though deprived of his throne and power, hunted like a wild animal by his son, and betrayed by many of his people, came to a different conclusion. Throughout his life, when in trouble, David exercised a remarkable independence of thought that allowed him to see God\u2019s hand in trials of the worst sort. He had known the loving care of God by experience in some truly difficult periods of his life, and when he came to new challenges, he would draw on what he knew about God and His character. Let’s be clear: David was in the throes of disaster, but the psalm rings with the sound of ultimate victory. The next verses attest to the hope of a man whose dependence in disaster was fixed only on God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and He answers me from His holy mountain. \u2014 Psalms 3:3-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David was convinced that he would be able to lift his head again, though now bowed with shame, pain, and despair. God would be his helper as David depended on Him. The final chapter of his life had not been written. God was still at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friend, what do you believe you can never recover from? Disregard the naysayers and the negative voices, even the ones in your own head. God can transform even life’s worst circumstances into remarkable turning points, overruling them for His glory and your good. Don’t give up. If you surrender it all to God, He will bless and guide you\u2014again and again. After recovery from disaster, with God, the best is yet to come. With Him there is always hope!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some disasters, be they personal or professional, moral or familial, feel humanly impossible to overcome. When the flame of hope is but a flicker and expectation has all but died,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truththatfrees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}