A Continuing Series by Pastor David Vento
Shiloh Full Gospel Church, Adamsburg, PA

Let us look at another account of “counting it all joy” in the Word. In 1 Samuel chapter 30 we find King David facing a severe trial. His swift action of “count it all joy” caused him not only to be preserved, perfected, complete and lacking nothing, but David also was one who prospered from it. In verse 1 we find David and his army returning home to Ziklag from an exhausting campaign of battles. Tired and fatigued they were looking forward to seeing their families and taking a long over due rest. As they approached the City they could see smoke arising off the horizon, and as they got closer they saw that their homes and families were gone the City was in total ruin. Their wives, children and all their possessions were stolen by the Amalekites. Is this a trial or what? So let’s pick this up in verse 4 were it says, “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep”. People don’t get me wrong, there is a proper grieving that takes place when you receive shocking news like the lose of your home, or the death of a loved one. God doesn’t expect us to be cold and callous about things. But we also can’t let it cause us to get into the soul realm either. Look at what happens; verse 5, “And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabel the Carmelite, had been taken captive.” So here is David not only is he dealing with the loss of his own family. But he is also the captain, the one who the people look to and who hold responsible for the protection of their city and families. Moving on to verse 6 and it says, “Now, David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, for the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.” Look at what we find here. Not only did David loose his own family and all his possessions, but he had the responsibility for the loss of the others. Now they wanted to stone him, his life was in danger. But David’s great distress wasn’t because of those things. It was because the people allowed their grieving to enter into their soul. This is what caused the people, who loved David and respected him, who would at times risk their own lives to save his, now talk of stoning him. What did David do? Did he get emotional and say “oh, woo is me, what am I going to do. I probably deserve to die and threw himself into their hands, No!” In the last sentence in verse 6 it says, “David strengthen himself in the Lord his God” (scenario #2). That word strengthen means the same as to “be strong and of good courage” which is found in Joshua 1:9. It means “established, firm, fortified, mighty.” David literally “made himself strong in the Lord his God”. He didn’t allow his soul to take over. How did he do that? By rehearsing the things of God. David looked upward to who his God is. What did David say to Goliath as he approached him in 1 Samuel 17:45 “Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a javelin? But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies if Israel, whom you defied”. David looked back at what God did for him, he looked ahead to the promises of God and he looked inward to what God thought about him. What did God say about David? He said, “That David was a man after His own heart”. Even in the midst of all his wrong doing David was always after the heart of God. He knew God. How can we know God like that? In John 15:7 Jesus said, “if you abide in Me and I in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.” John 14:6 “Jesus is the way and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 8:32 “You shall know the truth, (Jesus) and (He) the truth shall set you free.” In John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. This is talking about Jesus; He is the empowerment of God and the Word and Truth of God. In John 18:37 Jesus told this to Pilate when asked if He was a king, He said, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Go back to 1 Samuel 30. After David strengthened himself in the Lord his God, He did what? Verse 8, “David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them”? And He answered Him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” So what we have seen so far in answering our question of “How do I count it Joy”. 1) David didn’t allow his soul to respond, 2) He strengthened himself in the Lord and 3) He inquired of the Lord. David sought God’s plan and not his own plan. God, what do you want me to do? His plan is always better than our plan.

So what happened. In verse 18-20 it says, “So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.” But it doesn’t stop there. In verse 20 it says, “then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock, and said, This is David’s spoil.” See he didn’t only recover all that he lost but God added to him and also to those who were ready to stone him.

The answer to how we “count it all joy” or “making an intelligent appraisal of the situation from God’s perspective” is simple isn’t it?

1. Be aware of our response. Don’t respond in the soul, but respond in the spirit. David grieved but didn’t allow his soul to respond to the trial.

2. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. Know Him and what He thinks of you. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “ The thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

3. And inquire of the Lord. This wasn’t the 1st time David inquired of the Lord. In 1 Samuel 23:4 it says, “Then David inquired of the Lord once again.” David was what? He was a man after God’s own heart. Like Jesus his desire was to do the will of the Father. Jeremiah 29:12 & 13. Says, “Then you will call upon Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

I am closing this month with a couple of scriptures for you to look up. Amos 3:7; John 15:15: Daniel 9:22; and Jeremiah 23:22. These talk about God’s heart in revealing His plans to us. As our loving heavenly Father wants us to turn to Him and His ways so that He can preserve us, perfect us, complete us and keep us from lack during the midst of our trials.

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