There David was after years and years of running and hiding in caves and fighting battles and realizes he has discovered the secret of the blessing of God’s presence. God’s presence was with the ark of the covenant. David understood that to be blessed he needed God’s presence, and he was willing to be humiliated in his own eyes to get it. Have you ever had to go through something while others looked down on you and persecuted you for being willing to do it to get God’s blessing?
God promised that if we trust him, we would never be brought to shame. David came back to bless his house but was greeted with disdain. As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter, Michal, watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.
How many men have overcome their anger, fear of failures and many other secret battles and the women in their lives don’t see the battles and strength it took to get to this place of accomplishment? She saw one situation and didn’t judge righteously the weight of that moment. Be careful what you see as dishonorable that God counts honorable.
David leaped and danced. You had to endure a season of dishonor when you were being honorable. You fasted and sowed financial offerings when you were not appreciated. You had to endure something that others felt was humiliating and would have never endured to make a situation right. You had to challenge a religious tradition, a generational curse attached to a giant or a system? You had to appear stripped like David and appear dishonorable before those that you should have been held in honor. You had to make a hard decision that caused you to be vulnerable and brought shame in your life, but you did it with honorable intentions.
Are you willing to be humiliated in your own eyes to honor God and get the blessings he has for you?
2 Sam 6:20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” 23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.”
David knew that it was God that had positioned him, and he wasn’t going to let his wife steal his moment of victory. He didn’t allow her to minimize him after all he had been through to get that place in God. We can not let the enemy through others make us feel like we should walk in shame when God has brought us into a season of victory. She counted him dancing out of his clothes as a weakness, but God saw it as honorable that he was willing to become transparent and vulnerable before the people even if he felt humiliated in his own eyes for God. God is challenging us to not allow the shame of our past, our battles or anyone in our lives to pull us out of this season of victory. To every David that has overcame and been willing to be humiliated in your own eyes to get what God said you could have, I want to say: Thank you. God is going to establish your throne forever like he did King David as you continue to acknowledge and stay a man after God’s own heart.
The picture that I took,
Does not fit in an album or a book,
It is much bigger.
It lives in my heart and is framed by time and chance,
Defined more than by one moment or a circumstance,
It is protected by the love of God that covers blemishes and mistakes,
Protected from ripes or breaks,
It is not subject to contortion,
or distortion.
This image was taken the moment you decided to say yes,
To Gods blessing and best.
Not to perfection,
but to a new direction.
It cast down imaginations and brought them captive in my mind,
And removed the crinkles and tears that the enemy tried to use to blind,
Us,
With an image to capture the pain,
But It was developed without blemish or shame,
For the day you overcame,
you became,
The man that chose to love me and give me your last name.
See this picture does not hang on a wall,
It has been restored and will soon be seen by all,
on display,
Like a fine piece of art that was once hidden and tucked away.
In this picture, I see forgiveness and grace,
These are the lines that run through your face,
Not wrinkles of time, not sorrow from the tears in your eyes,
from past mistakes that try to torment you with fears and lies,
But I see the love that defines your days,
because you allowed him to change your ways,
and you continue to give him the praise.
You changed the image that forever lives in my heart.
Of a man that I can trust and feel safe from sorrow,
To share my tomorrow,
forever protected from being destroyed or ever ripped apart,
Because you are a man like David after God’s heart. ❤️