“Suffering times are a Christian’s harvest time.” Charles Spurgeon. I have had the opportunity to speak to quite a number of people and I must say, hearing their personal and private struggle is humbling. There are those who are faced with the death of a child or a wife from cancer, the loss of a job or business opportunity, and there are those faced with financial issues, yet, what I observed about these great men is their willingness to stand on the word of God in spite of their private struggles. David exemplified this character in his struggles.
When you read the story of David, it is unimaginable to comprehend the sufferings and private battles he went through. David wrote in one of his Psalms, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.” Read Psalm 42:11.
Can you imagine what it was like for David to be on the run constantly in fear of his life because Saul was determined to kill him? How about his own son, Absalom? David’s personal disappointments, the anguish he faced due to the death of his child(ren). Think with me for a moment, how David must have felt lonely. Recall, when David’s mighty men felt like stoning him for something he did not cause?
Think of this, David got a message through the prophet about God’s punishment that will be meted out to him because of what he did with Bathsheba and Uriah. I can only imagine; David would have had sleepless and lonely nights. David writes, “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” Read Psalm 38:4. Ladies and gentlemen, if this is not suffering, then I do not know what is. And for David to be alive to experience the implication of his sin must have been heart-wrenching. But you know what I love; the redemptive and restorative grace of God. Hence the Bible records of God’s testimony concerning David, “A man after God’s own heart.” This still blows my mind till today, But why should it? After all, “God is rich in mercy.” God made a covenant saying, “For You gave Your Word and promised David in an unbreakable oath that one of his sons would be sitting on the throne to succeed him as king.” Read Psalm 132:11 (TPT).
Brothers and sister, these were very dry spells in the life of David, and he had to trust God in the midst and David acknowledged by this saying, “This I know, that God is for me.” Psalm 56:9 (NIV). Beloved, David knew God, and God knew David. I am not speaking of a passive knowing, O, no, this was a knowing of fellowship and intimacy. Beloved, we must come to this one conclusion, “God is for me.”
“Where the river flows, life abounds.” Ezekiel 47.
We write. You read. Be encouraged.
Kolumns 
My Father in heaven; “… As I looked to you and my face was radiant.” No one else can help but You.
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