Pastor Yon's Blog

Pursuing The Promise

3 Mins read

Pursuing The Promise

1 Samuel 23:3-5

3 And David’s men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?
4 Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

Today, I want to give you some privileged information about the enemy of your destiny—something he doesn’t want you to know. It’s about the fear he attempts to place inside of you simply to keep you where you are. You see, the enemy is ecstatic when your feet become cemented to the very spot where you stand. But you must realize that when you refuse to go forward, when you fail to step out in faith, or when you hesitate to follow God’s plans and prompting, you set yourself up for missing the blessing and the breakthrough that God has for you.

From our text, we see how fear makes David’s men hesitate to take that first step. They said, “Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”(v. 3). To paraphrase, they basically said, “Look man, we’re afraid right where we are . . . And if we are afraid in the familiar place, don’t you think we will be more afraid in a place we know less about?”

I’m sure many of us have talked ourselves right out of doing something or let someone else talk us out of doing something. We started out gung-ho and ready to go. But in between “go” and “get there,” someone might have said something that caused us to hesitate. Then after hesitation came the meditation. This stage occurs when we receive one hundred reasons from the enemy of how one thing could go wrong. If we meditate on those wrong ways long enough, we then move on to the final step: procrastination, when the pause evolves into a “full-term stop!” We no longer seek to do what God has told us to do; instead, we focus on the reasons why we should not do them.

The best reason to do what God told you to do is this: “Because He told you to do it.” This reason might not mean much to some people, but to me it means that He is directly responsible for the outcome. If I do what He told me to do, then I should get what He told me I should get! It might look like I’m failing when I do what He told me to do, but it’s up to Him to turn that failure into success, no matter what it looks like to me! Let’s look at the remainder of our text.

In verse 4, David went to God again for confirmation about Keilah. Why? Because of doubt in the camp. And God confirmed where he was supposed to be going and what he was to do. Then the 5th verse tells us that David and his men went to Keilah. Now here’s a question for you. Were David’s men afraid? Probably so because once they got there they had to fight! Victory wasn’t just dropped in their laps; they had to fight! The mayor didn’t bring a surrender notice to them during a ticker tape parade; they had to fight! But once they fought, the 5th verse tells us that David’s men brought away cattle and smote the Philistines with a great slaughter. David’s victory all goes back to one thing – – – a promise from God!!

In 2007, my question for you is this: Will you hold on to the promise that God has place inside of you? What if getting it requires a fight? Will you fight? What if fear prompts you to hesitate, meditate, or procrastinate? Will you run after God’s promise or retreat due to fear? The deciding factor is the choice you make regarding the pursuit of your promise. No one else can pursue your promise but you. No one else can attain it but you. No one else can enjoy but you. And most of all, God didn’t make it for anyone else but you! Therefore – – – Pursue!

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