1 Samuel 25:14-18
14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.” 18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys....
I Samuel 25:32-35
32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!34 For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”
One of the lessons from the story of Abigail is the wisdom of being proactive. A dangerous situation was brewing, with her husband's rebuff of David and his men. A possible response would have been to ignore the threat, hope it blows over, not do anything to antagonize her husband. We may likewise encounter problems due to addicted spouses or due to our own weaknesses. The easy thing to do in such a situation is to pretend the problem doesn't exist, and hope it goes away. But God usually doesn't take away the problems, because He wants us to learn how to deal with them. Abigail made the right choice in confronting the problem and bringing reconciliation before the problem spun out of control.
God, I confess to wanting to ignore and avoid my problems. But that is not the way to develop godly character, so help me to confront my problems, and not run away from them.
14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.” 18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys....
I Samuel 25:32-35
32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!34 For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”
One of the lessons from the story of Abigail is the wisdom of being proactive. A dangerous situation was brewing, with her husband's rebuff of David and his men. A possible response would have been to ignore the threat, hope it blows over, not do anything to antagonize her husband. We may likewise encounter problems due to addicted spouses or due to our own weaknesses. The easy thing to do in such a situation is to pretend the problem doesn't exist, and hope it goes away. But God usually doesn't take away the problems, because He wants us to learn how to deal with them. Abigail made the right choice in confronting the problem and bringing reconciliation before the problem spun out of control.
God, I confess to wanting to ignore and avoid my problems. But that is not the way to develop godly character, so help me to confront my problems, and not run away from them.