They Don’t Know What You’ve Been Through

(Read 1 Samuel 18:19-27)

This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing.”  Yesterday we learned that David — after being deceived by Saul with his first daughter and after being given a ridiculous requirement of killing 100 Philistines — was given the privilege of marrying a princess.  David and princess Michal married in what I am sure was a beautiful royal wedding.

I am currently in Georgia, at a church leadership conference, and while my Spiritual Father (Bishop Richard Peoples) was ministering the Word yesterday, the Lord had me to take a few minutes to meditate on David and Michal’s wedding.  The first person I thought of was Eliab.  Do you remember him?  He was David’s eldest brother, the firstborn of their father Jesse.  I don’t know if Eliab was in the wedding party or not, but chances are that he was at the wedding.  Can you imagine what Eliab must have been thinking?  Being the firstborn Eliab had the birthright blessing and there was a certain confidence about him.  When the prophet Samuel stood before Eliab, as he was looking to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king of Israel, even the prophet thought to himself, “Surely this is the LORD’s anointed!” (1 Sam 16:6).  Eliab was strong and good looking, and being the oldest he probably thought he was the best.  But when the Lord told the prophet that Eliab was not the one, and neither were any of the other six boys present, I am sure none of them were very happy when they had to wait on David to come out of the field in order to get blessed right in front of them.

When David was on an errand for his father, taking lunch to his brothers, and asked about about the reward for killing Goliath, it was Eliab who got angry and said, “What are you doing here!  Why aren’t you minding your own business, tending that scrawny flock of sheep?  I know what you’re up to. You’ve come down here to see the sights, hoping for a ringside seat at a bloody battle!” (1 Sam 17:28).  It is clear that Eliab had a chip on his shoulder concerning the attention his little brother was getting.  I can only imagine the look on Eliab’s face when David cut Goliath’s head off.

So let’s get back to the wedding.  I imagine Eliab was thinking, “Man, that should be me.  I should be marrying the king’s daughter right now.”  I am just imagining, but in my holy imagination I could see Eliab, even at the wedding, thinking that he was better than David and how he should have been receiving what David was receiving.  But Eliab had no idea what David had been through to get to where he was.

So what does this mean to you today?  Two things:
1.  People see your success, but they don’t know your struggle.  Eliab was not there when David wrestled with a lion and a bear with his bare hands.  Eliab was not down there in the valley with the giant.  Eliab was not there when the king (a man with supreme authority) hurled a spear at David’s head.  Eliab was not there when David had to kill 100 Philistines in order to earn the right to marry the princess.  It would have been too easy for Eliab to stand at David and Michal’s wedding and say that David was “lucky,” but Eliab had no clue what David had been through.  People only like to acknowledge your harvest, but they conveniently overlook the years of sowing you did.  Just don’t allow the resentment of others to cause you to grow bitter.  They don’t know what you’ve been through, but you do.  Remain humble and thankful for God’s goodness, knowing that without him you would have never survived the struggle long enough to see the success.

2.  They don’t have your grace.  Eliab could of thought that he was better than David and that he could have done everything David did, but he could not, because he did not have David’s grace.  Eliab had his own grace, for his own race.  When others resent your success, thinking that they could have done what you did even better than you did it, don’t entertain their envy.  Know that you only did what you did because of God’s grace on your life and if they keep spending their time wondering about how their could have lived your life, then they are wasting their own.  Don’t focus on running the race of someone else, just focus on your race, because God only gives you grace to run your own race.

Closing Confession:  Father, I thank You for this teaching.  Others will see the success I experience at this stage of my life and most of them have no clue what I have been through.  They see the success, but they don’t know the struggle.  They see the harvest, but they were not there when I was sowing seed.  They see the manifestation, but they don’t know the mess I had to go through to experience it.  I won’t allow the bitterness or resentment that others may have, for my success, to cause me to get bitter.  And as You bless me to experience divine success, I will not allow the accolades of others to cause me to forget that my success came from You.  I remember my struggle, because it’s part of my story.  I remember my mess, because it’s part of my message.  I remember my tests, because they are part of my testimony.  And I run with patience the set course that You have laid before me.  I run my own race, with my own grace, knowing that I don’t have the grace of others and they don’t have mine.  I have my own grace, for my own race, and as I encounter challenges and obstacles along the way, I am reminded that I have Your grace on me to overcome every one!   In Jesus’ name.

This is Today’s Word!  Apply it and Prosper.