Young people today spend way too much time trying to force their way into opportunities. In fact, nobody is really immune to this. Whether we’re fresh out of college or twenty years into a profession, when we see even the hint of an opportunity, our initial instinct may be to push the door open ourselves.
We dare not promote ourselves to our next job. We cannot force others to see what only we can see, or think we see, in ourselves and kick-start our destiny into a higher gear. Promotion doesn’t come from us or even from others. Promotion comes from the Lord, and the Lord only.
You are where you are right now because where you are is where God wants to use you right now. Maybe you’ve been told you’re going to be the next king. Are you king now? David wasn’t. David did his job there, right where he was. He was a shepherd, and he did it well. He was gifted in music, and he used it well. When he was given an opportunity to sing and play for – of all people – his demon-possessed predecessor, he did it well.
Wait on the Lord for your next opportunity. When that opportunity comes, don’t get caught in the snare of assigning too much significance to it. After David sang Saul to sleep, he didn’t snoop around and start planning a hostile takeover. He didn’t say to himself, “God has finally brought me to my destiny. It’s time to start my kingdom!” He did what he was brought there to do and then went home to his sheep.
David had an opportunity to serve the king, and he did it well. That is all God wanted from him at the time. His moment to become the ruling king had not yet arrived.
Follow David’s lead. Learn to wait on the Lord. Let God guide you to Saul’s camp. Let God work on Saul. Let God work on you. Let God work on Samuel. Eventually, all these lines intersect at just the right moment. At God’s moment.
Mark Rutland appears this Monday on LIFE TODAY. This is an excerpt from David the Great by Mark Rutland. Copyright ©2018 by Mark Rutland. Published by Charisma House. Used by permission.
