Giving God the If Only

September 15, 1996 pm

2 Samuel 23:13-17

The exact time in David's life that this story took place is not clear. We do know several things:

  1. David is in hiding, threatened, being pursued by King Saul. He is at times emotionally drained and overwhelmed (as his Psalms reflect.)
  2. David has an as-yet unfulfilled promise: he has been anointed to be king over Israel. To his everlasting credit, David has not insisted on his rights. Instead he has waited on God to open the doors.
  3. We know also that David's home town of Bethlehem is in the hands of the Philistines. And in it all David is very much "down." He is not having a good day.

IF ONLY FEELINGS COME TO US ALL . .

The reason this story appeals to us is that we can all identify with David. (He doesn't tell it like it ought to be—but like it is!) David's UNIQUE situation is also often UNIVERSAL experience:

  1. Aware of God's PROMISES (God wants me, God loves me, God wants to use me) and in a sense believing, but at the same time
  2. Very much aware of problems and circumstances. There is a temptation to think that God doesn't REALLY understand OUR situation— how WE feel just now. We're tempted to think God doesn't care when we hurt. Tempted to feel that somehow we shouldn't ever be "down" when others who don't believe at all are better off. We face the prospects of a long hard pull with no change in sight.
  3. And right here comes the temptation to take a short-cut. Since God's BEST seems so far away, I'll just settle for what seems next best! I'll go for the PRESENT SATISFACTION. And yet we know the truth: there isn't any short-cut answer to doing God's will. Illustration: Under pressure in New Jersey in 1962 early in my ministry there I was homesick for (of all places) Ohio. I was thinking "If only!! I had $1,000 I would move back to Ohio and start all over again..."
  4. In times like these it helps to remember that these feelings are.... just feelings! No real harm done IF (IF!!) we don't indulge them, or let them hang around too long. Feelings of loneliness, frustration, uselessness are part of living. But when those feelings come— right here— we need to be careful of the "IF" words! "IF only..." "What IF..."

HERE DAVID SAID: "IF ONLY I had a drink from the well at Bethlehem I think I could make it on..."

And David's men heard him— and he had an opportunity to be "satisfied" on the terms of his "if only." At great personal risk the warriors broke though enemy sentry lines and got him water from the well of his home town.

Then David did a strange an wonderful thing: HE TOOK THE WATER AND POURED IT OUT AS A SACRIFICE TO THE LORD!

REFUSING TO SATISFY SELF FIRST IS THE WAY OF SEEKING GOD'S BEST IN OUR LIVES: HIS PROMISES ARE SURE

Maybe David recognized the deeper meanings of his thirst for Bethlehem water:

Bethlehem's water— maybe it represented an innocence he could never quite recapture.

We can't turn the clock's hands backwards.

Bethlehem's well where the water came from was in enemy hands. No amount of water he could drink would change that fact.

Refusing to satisfy HIMSELF at the risk of other men's lives seems important to me here, too. David revealed a quality that I like— I want in my own life: LOYALTY, RESPECT FOR FRIENDS, NEVER USING THEM

... so David kept his goals firm: I'll follow God's promises in God's way— cutting no corners.

Illustration: What would it take for YOU to change your goals in life? You do have goals? Would $1,000,000 tax-free change the basic goals of your life? LIFE HAS DEEPER MEANING THAN THINGS, AND WHAT MONEY CAN BUY!

So David poured out his IF ONLY to God along with his future. And with it was BETHLEHEM'S FUTURE! It, along with the well, and all the water, was soon his!

David poured out his successes and failures, too. Not just here— but on two or three other occasions David had it in his power to "promote himself" to be king— to take things in his own hands and kill Saul. But David decided that God had promised, and God could and would open the doors. The raising up of David was up to God! And David became a candidate for greatness.

A self-indulgent David would never have become "a man after God's own heart." David did not pull back from keeping God first. David maintained his integrity.

WE HAVE FACED THE 'IF ONLY' TRAP many times in our experience. Do you see how the big "IF" can paralyze you? When the feelings come— and they will— pour them out before the Lord! Reject them!

No human marriage has ever succeeded without setting aside some "if only" items. No worth-while long-term goal has ever been reached unless that goal has been kept in mind.

OUR WITNESS DOES NOT NEED TO WAIT FOR AN 'IF ONLY!' (If only the times weren't so bad! If only people were more God-minded...) WESLEY'S 18TH CENTURY ENGLAND WAS AT LEAST AS VILE AND EVIL AND COARSE AS OUR OWN TIMES.

If you truly belong to God, He has made some promises. Nothing can keep you from becoming ultimately what HE wants you to be. If you are NOT God's person, then NOTHING ELSE can make up the difference! Not a million dollars . . . not ANYTHING!

Will you deliberately give your thirst to God? Will you trust Him just as you are just now? Trust him with ALL your future?

PRAYER

#489 Where He Leads Me I will Follow