Good morning, brothers and sisters.
Our verse for today comes from 2 Samuel 19:7, “Now, arise, go out and speak comfort to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, not one will stay with you this night. And that will be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now.”
I work with spreadsheets to do a significant portion of my job. And these spreadsheets make use of formulas to calculate and manipulate the numbers within them. Some of these formulas are quite simple, while others can be a bit more elaborate. But one thing goes for every formula, and that is that every single piece must be in its proper place. If you leave out or misplace even the simplest comma or quotation mark, all you’ll get for your efforts is an error message rather than a number. My mom used to make apple turnovers, or apple jacks as we called them, and she would do so when she came to visit us on occasion. One time I came home as she was in the midst of cooking, but what she had made was being dumped into the trash can. It so happened that she had grabbed the sugar instead of the flour while mixing up the batter, and the fried turnovers had turned out to be fried bricks. Simple little alterations that can radically change the outcome. David was losing the confidence and allegiance of his army as he mourned the loss of Absalom, despite the enormous victory they had brought him on the battle field. But Joab set him straight, advising him to simply go out and speak to his men to express his gratitude and concern. They didn’t need elaborate gifts or more than what he could offer. If he would just speak from his heart to theirs, unity would be restored, and disaster averted.
But speaking that comfort, or sharing heart to heart, can be the last thing we’re inclined to do. When tensions are high, or our mood is low, our natural inclination can be to be, well, too natural. We can shut down, or fly off the handle, or something else just as bad. But the simple answer is not natural, it’s supernatural. It’s letting God work through us to do and be what we cannot on our own. It’s not quite the difference between flour and sugar, or a comma and a dash, but the end result is far greater than what we can make on our own.
As we seek Him today, allow God to work small changes in your life to produce enormous results in you and others.
Have a marvelous Monday.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
