Learning Daily

I love the psalms of David. They are raw. They are honest. Yet, I always felt that I could not always relate to what he wrote. God has a way of growing us by allowing us to eventually experience many of the same feelings that the saints in the Word felt.

Recently, I experienced betrayal. It hurt like a knife in the heart. I had trusted someone that I considered a friend and someone that I respected. I found out that much of it if not all was a lie. They had gotten close to me and encouraged me to confide in them. None of that is wrong, but when they stored up in the information to use against me at a later date I was devastated. The truth was distorted and twisted to make anything I said or did to look ugly and horrible. I could not believe it. Now, I understood David.

David was a man who had so many people after him. They chased him. They slandered him. They laid traps for him. They thirsted for his blood. He cried to the Lord in his innocence. Was David perfect? No. Did he sin? Yes. Yet, his enemies could not attack him in those areas. They made up lies and tried to bring him down. He constantly asked God to let them fall into their traps.

These Psalms now take on new meaning for me as I hear how this person is claiming that I lie and steal. Do I have faults? More than I care to look at. Yet, they pull ones that have no prove to slander me. A so-called friend.

I have wished like David that they be wiped from the earth. I have wished that they fall into their own traps. I lift up all this before God. I hurt yet I need to learn to pray for them. This is hard especially when it comes from someone with enough Christian years and knowledge under their belt. They do know better.

Discovering the world includes learning of the ugly and painful. We cannot go through life without experiencing some of this. We will have betrayal. We will have disappointment. We will have disappointments. Only through experiencing these can we grow and become stronger. I know that I will rise out of this stronger and wiser. That does not negate the pain nor does God wish us not to feel the pain. He was betrayed. He knows how it feels. He knows more than anyone. Yet, He rose out of it in such majesty. We can do.

Growing is painful, but I thank God everyday for these experiences that make me a better soldier for His army.