Have you ever gone looking for love, or for acceptance, or to have your needs met outside of God’s plan for your life?
Do any of you remember Johnny Lee’s 1980 chart-topping-single “Looking for Love”? I didn’t see Urban Cowboy (the movie that introduced the song), but the song got LOTS of radio airplay on my school bus. I wasn’t a country music fan, but I can still recall the lyrics, “Looking for love in all the wrong places. Looking for love in too many faces, searching their eyes, looking for traces of what I’m dreaming of . . .”
The Old Testament offers a great example of someone who went looking in the wrong place. David had no business living in the land of the Philistines (1 Samuel 27, 29). Here are two big reasons for NOT living in Philistia:
- David was already anointed to be king (1 Samuel 16). He couldn’t be killed and fulfill God’s plan.
- God warned the Israelis of the dangers of close relations with sinful outsiders.
Radiculopathy comes from the same Latin radiculo viagra cialis for sale for root plus itis for inflammation. More than anything, your health is still the best person to get a reliable pill viagra referral. If it is taken before food, it remains active in the body for 4-6 hours. viagra 5mg The evaluation may involve psychological exam, written questionnaire on previous sexual cialis india online experiences.
David and his loyal band of misfits become pirates and liars while living in Philistia. Could the bad influence of the people around whom David chose to live be the reason nothing is said about God for the 16 months David lives in Ziklag?
I know that Saul repeatedly tried to kill David, but God delivered David every time. Why did David no longer trust God’s protection in Israel? I think David suffered from three common worries.
#1 “I’m not sure my needs will be met.”
#2 “I don’t want to get rejected by my peer group.”
#3 “I want to feel accepted or loved.”
David suffered from that internal need for acceptance – to the extreme he was willing to seek it from a Philistine king. David tried in vain to meet his own needs. David certainly got no sense of peace from King Saul but King Achish of Gath was the wrong place to go looking.
Too often people seek out the wrong folks for security. God hasn’t called you to live life outside the community of faith. David’s decision to seek acceptance outside of Israel ended horribly. Ultimately David and his men get rejected by the Philistines who refuse to fight alongside of them. David even gets rejected by his own men when they return from being rejected by the Philistines. Finally, David recognizes his mistake.
Even after his experience in Ziklag, David struggled with this same kind of concerns, but David takes his emotions to the right place. Instead of looking for love in the wrong place, David goes to the Lord directly. I appreciate David’s willingness to bare his unprocessed sentiments in open worship.
- “O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 NLT)
- “Quick, God, I need your helping hand! The last decent person just went down, All the friends I depended on gone. Everyone talks in lie language; Lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues.” (Psalm 12:1-2 MSG)
- “My God, my God, why have you deserted me? Why do you seem to be so far away when I need you to save me? Why do you seem to be so far away that you can’t hear my groans?” (Psalm 22:1 NIRV) Every human knows this concern. Jesus used the words from this Psalm while hanging on the cross.
Your circumstances may be quite different than David’s, yet you feel those same pressure points of worry and concern. What will you do with them? Take time today to read all of Psalm 10, 12, and 22. See how the Psalmist David learned to handle those raw emotions.
God is never threatened by your honesty in prayer and worship. He knows everything about you and still invites you to come to Him. Get God’s perspective on your life. Don’t look for love in the wrong place. You are called to respond in faith to trials and difficulties in life.
For more insight into David’s Ziklag experience, check out http://www.pastorgreg.org/distressed-3-sources-to-encourage-yourself/.
