God has a plan for every single one of us, and rest assured, it’s a good one. However, sometimes we let the mere fact that we’re imperfect form a big cloud over our minds.
What’s even worse, it seems, is that question that accompanies the cloud, which is: What if I mess it up? What if the enemy messes it up and I can’t stop him?
Of course, the Bible addresses that. Let me introduce (or reintroduce) you to David.
We’ll be in 2 Samuel today.
David did a lot that we could consider “messing up God’s plan,” and he had a lot of people who tried to do that for him (i.e. his very own son). The point is, David is an example of “messed up” and “messing up.” He is also the one who is described as a man after God’s own heart, and the anointed king of Israel. And don’t you think God knew he’d mess up even when He anointed him?
We’ll start with “messing up.” I won’t go into detail about every single thing David did, but know that he not only committed adultery, but also had the husband of the woman he was seeing killed so that he could see her. We see him deliberately plot this in 2 Samuel 11:14 (NIV), where the Bible tells us that David sent a letter to Joab, and “in it he wrote, ‘Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.'” You know who he had deliver that letter? Uriah. And, yes, Uriah did in fact die in battle. David had let his own lustful desires and his arrogance as king lead him to commit murder.
And yet, God still blessed David. Not only that, but He used him in His Will. Even Jesus was a descendant of David. And not because David eventually felt great remorse for what he did, but because the Lord is good, and He had a will for David’s life that not even David himself could stop.
Later on (and this is where we move to “messed up”), David’s son, Absalom, was plotting to kill him (this starts in 2 Samuel 15). As we’d imagine, this broke David’s heart. This plot lasts until 2 Samuel 18, where David’s men finally kill Absalom while they are at war. Absalom had assembled an entire army to take over his father. Indeed, David was not only in a lot of physical danger, but also in a lot of emotional grief over the person his son had become and what would eventually happen to him. Sit for a moment and think about how you’d feel if someone you loved dearly plotted to kill you for their own power—and then you had to command your men to go and kill that person. It’s unimaginable.
But the Lord had deliverance for David. In 2 Samuel 22:1 , the Bible tells us that “David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” By the end of the chapter, David is singing “‘He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever'” (2 Samuel 22:51 NIV). And though David did in fact have several physical people coming after him, he also had the enemy toying with his humanity to try and destroy him, because the enemy knew God was going to do something good with David (and the enemy knows God is going to do something good with you).
I know that sometimes, we can tend to kind of wince at David because of what he did to Uriah, but we’ve got to remember that there’s a little bit of David in all of us. I’m not saying that we’ll commit the exact same sin as David, but we have to remember that all sin separates us from God—not just those that we deem more despicable than others. So, we are similar to David in the fact that we are sinners in need of a savior.
We are also similar to him in the way that no matter how badly we mess up, God has a wonderful plan for our lives and a plan to fulfill it. And it’s not because of how much better we can do or can get, it’s because of how good He already is and forever will be.
So breathe, my friends, and praise Him for His plan!
God is going to do something great, and it’s a beautiful thing that there’s nothing anyone can do to stop Him.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Katie Pennington is a writer and editor who is originally from Hazard, Kentucky, but currently resides with her family in central Tennessee (though she frequently visits her Appalachian roots). Her favorite Bible verse is Psalm 42:5, which reminds her that in despair, there’s hope in God, and there’s healing in praising Him.