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With Him

             One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.” (I Samuel 16:18)

          This won’t be long because I’ve been on the road since 7:30 this morning and it’s after 11 pm. After this one, I won’t have ready access to the internet for a few days, so I will post when I can.

          But, this verse stood out as I listened to I Samuel-I Chronicles today. Saul was in a pickle. He had failed miserably and more than once, and God had rejected him as king. The Lord had been with him, but the Lord was no longer with him. So when one of his servants said that the Lord is with David, I wondered if perhaps the reason Saul wanted David around was in hopes of having the Lord with him through David, so to speak. And he did. That was the problem. The Lord blessed what David did, and it’s a blessing that Saul believed he should have had. No wonder Saul rode a pendulum in his reactions to David.

          There’s a saying attributed to Denzel Washington that “Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons.” I suspect the more correct version of this is that some people will never like you because His Spirit irritates their demons. It doesn’t have to be real demons – because demons can’t possess or inhabit Christians, but there is another sort of demon – our sinful flesh – and His Spirit, especially in others – can irritate that.

          The last interesting thing about this as I listened this morning is that I doubt David, Joseph, Daniel, you, or I realize that the Lord is with them/you/me. But other people might notice it. I don’t think I’m any good at recognizing the Lord being with anyone. But it would be a good thing to pray for—that we would see the Lord in others.

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