150 Cardio: A Hopeful Heart

David’s story starts so good. Rising from lowly shepherd boy to court musician to successful army officer, his career path was a thing of beauty. Then a funny thing happened on his parade to the throne: the wheels began to fall off. 

In short order, David lost his job, his wife, his mentor, and his best friend. He had to run for his life and ended up living in a cave. 

I want to talk to you about cave-dwelling. A cave is where you end up when everything that props you up, gets stripped away. 

The cave may have any number of names – Discouragement, Disillusionment, Despair.  Maybe you’ve lost a job or you’re under financial pressure.  Maybe your relational dreams have been shattered.  Maybe you’ve lost your health or you have to care for someone who has.  Maybe you made a bad decision somewhere along the line, and everything is crashing down and you find yourself alone.

Sooner or later, everybody spends some time in a cave.  And if you’re like me you start to wonder, “Has God lost track of me?  What’s the purpose of this?  Will I ever get out of here?”  

You need to know a couple of things about caves. 

It’s in caves where you can meet God.

Don’t waste your days in the cave.  Lean into God.  Learn about God.  Allow your isolation to intensify your focus.
 

It’s in caves where God does some of his best work.

It’s in caves where God molds and shapes human lives like no place else. David spent ten years in caves, on the run.  From a human perspective, it looked like God’s promises to him were never going to come true.  But it was here that the shepherd boy was sculpted into a king.

At perhaps the lowest point of this cave-dwelling season, the Bible tells us how David got through. “David encouraged himself in the Lord.” (1 Sam. 30:6b KJV)

So, how does that happen?  Here are four steps that we see in the life of David from this era.


1.     Pour out your discouragement openly and honestly.
If you want to be encouraged in the Lord, be real honest about your discouragement.  Name it.  Be open about it.  Talk to God about it.


2.     Take some positive action.
Taking action requires a decision. What is one step you can take to address your discouragement?


3.     Resist the temptation of shortcuts.
Will you have the courage to NOT take the shortcut, to NOT give in to temptation, to stay in the cave even though it would be so easy to get out? Because I’ll tell you, a shortcut like that, though it may feel good for a moment, can destroy a soul.

4.     Find your ultimate refuge in God.
Sometimes with God’s help, we can get out of the cave. But sometimes you’re in the cave for the long haul. It’s something you cannot fix or escape. All you can do is hang on to God, your ultimate refuge.

God understands all about caves because He’s been there. Years later the Son of David also had everything stripped away from him. He lost his position; he lost his family; his friends ran away from him; he had his life threatened by his enemies; he went to a cross and he died.

Then they put his body in a cave.  And they thought  He was finished.  But what they didn’t know – what the Evil One always forgets – is that God does some of his best work in caves.  In fact, caves are where God resurrects dead stuff.

Text: 1 Samuel 21-22, 24, 30; Psalm 57, 142

Originally recorded on June 4, 2006, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN.