Are You Whining or Shining?

God will do a deep work in us in our Cave of Adullam. He will test our hearts... "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not" (Deuteronomy 8:2).

The high favorites of Heaven are sometimes to be located in isolated and unexpected places:

1) Joseph in prison,

2) Daniel in the lions’ den,

3) Jonah in the great fish’s belly,

4) Paul clinging to a spar in the sea.

We will all enter the Cave of Adullam at some time in our life. Doubt may be such a cave. Persecution may be such a cave. Sickness may be such a cave. Bereavement may be such a cave. Conflict in relationships can be such a cave.

However, there is no cave dark enough to shut out God.

Adullam was a place of safety for David. "Thou shalt deal bountifully with me"! (Psalm 116:7, Psalm 13:6, Psalm 142:7).

I Samuel 22:1 teaches us:

"David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him. 3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, “Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?” 4 So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold. 5 But the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth. A stronghold is a protected place where the members of a military group stay and can defend themselves against attacks. II Samuel goes on to teach us more about David; "8 These are the names of David’s mighty warriors: Josheb-Basshebeth,[a] a Tahkemonite,[b] was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed[c] in one encounter."

God handpicked David to be the heir to King Saul's throne over Israel. He removed Saul due to his disobedience. God instructed the prophet Samuel to make a house call to Jesse's family. He had eight sons and one of them was to be the next king of Israel. Samuel did not know who that would be until he saw him in person. David was the smallest of the litter and even his father did not consider him a candidate, as he was not very kingly as a small shepherd boy. Further, Jesse's failure to even bring his son before Samuel along with the other sons is evidence of his view of his son.

Like many of us, we fail to see our children's potential in God. God always sees our potential, not our limitations. In one day, God took David from delivering lunch to delivering a nation.

We as Christians, having a relationship with our Father, need to make sure we are not complaining, but reigning in him! Whining gets nothing done! Let's make sure we are shining the light He has ignited in us. Bitterness steals our joy and the precious time we have here. We must be a better self today than we were yesterday.

With our Father ALL things are possible!