Broken people came to David looking for community in their bitterness. Instead they found a leader who was able to help them grow past their bitterness, to become a powerful and unified fighting force and men of great renown.
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Scripture
1 Samuel 22:2
“An everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.”
Observation
Birds of a feather flock together–and as David became an outcast ‘persona non grata’ in the kingdom that he had been anointed to rule, all of the other malcontents and misfits began to flock to him also. They must have sensed a similar brokenness in him, or thought they had found a kindred spirit. They were ‘bitter in soul’: This ‘bitterness’ means ‘poisoned’, or ‘acrid’. David welcomed them–but he didn’t allow their brokenness and bitterness to remain festering as their primary identifier. David had been hurt also, it’s true. But his soul was not poisoned, because he had allowed God to accomplish something through his pain.
These men came to David looking for community in their bitterness. Instead they found a leader who was able to help them grow past their bitterness, to become a powerful and unified fighting force, and men of great renown.
Application
I have faced hurt, brokenness, rejection, and bitterness in my life. I’ve spent seasons with poison in my soul…and I’ve experienced the healing and transformational power of God, to accomplish amazing things through my brokenness. Recently it seems like God has been bringing people around me who are still navigating that bitterness and brokenness in their own life. Perhaps there is a connecting point, or an attraction because of mutual pain?
Whatever the reason, I have an opportunity to build the relationship with hurting people–but not so that we can simply remain broken and hurting together! God has accomplished amazing things in my heart, and I want to see them experience that same transformation!
This week, I need to walk prayerfully: To welcome those who are hurting, but not to allow our pain to remain as our primary identifying feature.
The only way to do this, is to daily place my triumphs and tragedies in the hands of God, to be used for His glory.
Prayer
God, thank you for the healing and transformation that you are daily accomplishing in my heart! Help me to welcome those who are hurting, and give me wisdom to walk with them toward the transformation that you desire to accomplish in their heart also.
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