Sometimes things just go from bad to worse.

Take David, the anointed King of Israel in I Samuel 30.

First of all, after he was anointed King, then he killed Goliath, and soon won many battles. He became King Saul’s go to guy until jealousy seeped in so bad, that David had to escape Saul’s anger.

So David found himself in a stronghold surrounded by a bunch of losers who were disenfranchised with life and figured they had nothing better to do but rank up with poor David.

Still, David makes the best of it, and God builds his little army.

He lived in caves and strongholds bidding his time until God came through with His promises.

Then Samuel the prophet died. Pretty soon David found himself hiding among the Philistines – the greatest enemy of Israel.

You know things were bad for David when even the Philistines felt sorry for him. They saw him as a political refugee who was no threat to them.

One day the Philistines decide to fight Israel. David, in an attempt to protect himself and his men, shows up to help them. The Philistine King Achish is not opposed to the idea, but his men, the Philistines freak out. David’s an Israelite. The Philistines think their King Achish has lost his marbles in letting David join up with them.

David tries to convince Achish, but there’s no way it’s happening. So David packs up his men and heads home.

Things are looking pretty grim for David.

But they’re just about to get worse.

David and his men get home, only to find out that the Amalekites have raided them while they were gone. They took their wives and their kids captive, they burned their belongings.

It was a disaster.

As if things weren’t already bad enough for David. Here was this guy – anointed by God to be the king, but so far, aside from the early victory of beating Goliath, his life is looking like one big mess.

In I Samuel 30 things come to a head for David. His wife Abigail is stolen. His people are losing faith in him. They want to stone him. They didn’t care who David was.

It was a dark dark day for David – rejected by his people, rejected by the Philistines, destroyed by the Amalekites, and now despised by his own men.

Do you ever feel like when things can’t get any worse in your life, they get just a little bit worse?

You watch your life unravel, from bad to worse. You don’t know what to do. You don’t know where to turn.

Learn from David, the man after God’s own heart. In I Samuel 30:6 David’s response is astounding. In the face of utter disaster and his men getting ready to stone him, here’s what David did:

“But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”

In the face of disaster, David looked upward. When nothing made sense, he clung to the Lord.

Of course you probably know what happened next. Deliverance was on the way. God acted on behalf of David. David defeated the Amalekites. He recovered everything that they had stolen. He showed mercy to his men who had doubted him.

And in the very next chapter, Saul died and David became King.

Here’s the point of this blog:

The moment you think things couldn’t get any worse in your life may be the very moment that God will finally turn things around and deliver you.

Isn’t it time to stop fretting and fearing? Isn’t it time to strengthen yourself in the Lord?

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