I have a dear friend who is going through a horrific battle with cancer. She is a faithful woman of God and every time I speak with her I am humbled by the joy of the Lord that she exudes. She is radiant.

In Psalm 34: 3-4 David writes,

I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivers me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

David wrote this when he pretended to be insane in front of King Achish of the Philistines. It’s a crazy story. David was running from Saul, who was relentlessly chasing him. So what does David do? He hids in land of Saul’s enemy. He soon ends up trapped, Saul behind him and Aschish, King of the Philistines before him.

The question I ask is why would he go there in the first place? Perhaps he thought hiding in the land of Saul’s enemy was a good idea to keep his crazy father in law off his scent …sounds like a logical and strategic plan, right? So when he faces his enemy he knew he was in trouble so he pretended to be insane and they let him go. Basically saying, “We don’t have any room for another crazy person, we have too many already!”

God is Good… because it could have gone very differently.

A peace came to David and he said…

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

I love this!! If we seek the Lord, the Lord will answer. So often in life, rather than seeking God, we try to come up with our own promising and innovative ideas to deal with our challenges and very often we end up with more problems than before!

I sought the Lord and he answered me.

So, here’s a challenge for us today…seek God first in all our difficulties and challenges. Our situation may not change automatically, my dear friend can attest to that, but the promise is…

God delivers me from all my fears.

And isn’t that ultimately what we need most to overcome our challenges.

We also learn that we will not only be delivered from fear but it says you will be

radiant; and not covered with shame.

You will have joy and confidence displayed from the the inside out from overcoming your challenges. This is the strength of the Lord. For the joy of the Lord is your strength. I can’t help but think about my friend, her challenges, her faith and her radiance.

The same can be true for each of us if we seek the Lord! Let’s display God’s light not because we don’t have challenges but because the Lord is with us and the Lord is our strength!