You Have Grace for Your Assignment

This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing.”  We have been dealing with David, another grace case, for the last few days.  Yesterday we learned how God saw fit to call David out of the field, where he was dutifully taking care of his father’s sheep, in order to anoint him in front of his father and brothers.  I made an attempt to move forward in the passage this morning, but the Holy Spirit arrested me and took me back.  Let’s take a little more time to think about what happened to David.

We will learn later that David spent a great deal of time with his father’s sheep and the lessons he learned as a young shepherd helped him better understand God, who became the Great Shepherd of his life.  With that in mind, the first point I want to make is: God is always at work in your life, even before you acknowledge who He is.  God made plans for you before you were born and He also actively participated in your life before you accepted Him as Lord.

One of the greatest moments I have ever experienced in God was a day when the Holy Spirit took me back (in my mind, as if it were a movie) over all the times He shielded and protected me, while I was growing up in Brooklyn and the Dominican Republic.  I accepted Jesus as Lord at 23, but I would have never made it to the age of 23 if the Lord was not actively protecting me for my purpose.  The same can be said of David.  While he was just a young boy, out protecting sheep, David had a life-and-death encounter with a lion and another with a bear.  In both cases the Lord protected David and helped him kill both animals with his bare hands.  Had the Lord not been with David during those encounters (and I am sure, many others), like me, David would not have been alive to receive and fulfill his purpose.  What the Lord did for me and what He did for David was completely unmerited.  As a young man I did not acknowledge God and we don’t have any indication that David was exceptionally righteous as a young man either.  So, in the case of David, me, and I am sure you as well, the Lord helped us and protected us for our purpose, even when we did not acknowledge Him at all.  Do you know what that is called my friend?  It’s called GRACE!  Completely unmerited, undeserved, unexpected, and borderline unbelievable.  Grace is amazing!

The second and final point I will make today is that a special empowerment came upon David when Samuel anointed him with oil.  From that moment David was graced to be the king of Israel.  If you keep reading the text you see that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and the anointing to be king was now on David.  Why is that important?  It is important because you must understand that you are here for a reason and you must settle in your heart the fact that you have divine grace for your divine assignment.  The Father will never expect you to do something He has not equipped you for.  I am sure David did not fully understand the enormity of the assignment, nor the enormity of the grace of his life to fulfill it, but both the assignment and the grace were his.  Guess what?  The same can be said of you.  You have both a God-given assignment and the God-given grace to fulfill it.  No matter how big your assignment seems and now matter how unqualified you might feel, you must settle in your heart that you have grace for your assignment and you will fulfill it, not in your strength or ability, but in and by the grace of God.  Where God leads, He feeds.  Where He guides, He provides.  Whatever He tells you to do, He graces you to do.  So enter this day with your confidence rooted and grounded in His grace.

Closing Confession:  Father, thank You for keeping and shielding me when I did not even know You.  You made plans for me before the foundations of the world.  You shielded and protected me for my divine purpose, even before I ever acknowledged Your existence.  You were there for me before I ever called You Lord.  Thank You Father.  When I think about Your love and grace toward me, I am overwhelmed.  There is no way I could deserve it, and for that I will never cease to give You praise.  Now that I know You and I have a relationship with You as my Heavenly Father, You freely lead me by Your Spirit.  You reveal Your divine plans and purposes for my life, to me, and You also give me the grace to fulfill them.  No matter how big the assignment, I know You have given me the grace to fulfill it.  So I pursue my purpose with bulldog tenacity, knowing that I will never be able to fulfill it in my strength, but I shall maximize my purpose and potential in Your strength and by Your grace.  I declare this by faith.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.