SPRING FORTH NOW 2025

Sunday, March 9, 2025

And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.

So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.  And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights. And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick. We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.  And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all. And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.

I Samuel 30:1-20

When we understand what we have lost, we grieve and seek to recover whatever it is; whether it has value to us or anyone else or not, it is ours, and we miss it and want it back.  The wise saying is that you do not miss the water (life) until the well runs dry, and this rings true to us all.  Thus, the Re-covering Process directly results from the void that life, with its challenges, can and will create.  When you and I were fearfully and wonderfully made, God made us complete and as a result of sin, separation from God, the very essence of life that is ours was thwarted, causing us to grieve, even to be in turmoil and conflict when we realize it and thus, desire to reclaim that which is ours, the very essence and being of our creation.  Reclaiming what is ours is not easy and will take its toll on our lives and our psyche for us to discover and recover our Hidden Manna. Thus, we must always be in a mode in which we encourage ourselves.  Speak life to yourself and let life be alive in you, stir up the Spirit of God that is within, remembering who you are and who you have been created to be; you are a treasure, the crown of God’s glory.  The more confident we are about what is ours and who we are, the more we can enquire and take action to reclaim that which is ours and to do so with haste, diligently pursuing that which God has already ordained for our lives.