Trusting God’s Plan

2 Samuel 2:1-4 (NLT)
 
After this, David asked the Lord, “Should I move back to one of the towns of Judah?”
“Yes,” the Lord replied.
Then David asked, “Which town should I go to?”
“To Hebron,” the Lord answered.
 
David’s two wives were Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel. So David and his wives and his men and their families all moved to Judah, and they settled in the villages near Hebron. Then the men of Judah came to David and anointed him king over the people of Judah.

2 Samuel 5:1-5 (NLT)

Then all the tribes of Israel went to David at Hebron and told him, “We are your own flesh and blood. In the past, when Saul was our king, you were the one who really led the forces of Israel. And the LORD told you, ‘You will be the shepherd of my people Israel. You will be Israel’s leader.’”
 
So there at Hebron, King David made a covenant before the LORD with all the elders of Israel. And they anointed him king of Israel.
 
David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in all.
He had reigned over Judah from Hebron for seven years and six months, and from Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah for thirty-three years.


Reflection
 
The sweetest gift God has helped me unwrap is the gift of relinquishment. When I relinquish, my life floats and flows with peace. It feels like a lazy river ride for my emotions.
The moment I slide back into trying to control others or outcomes, I’m tense, rigid, and spent.
David also had to learn relinquishment to be able to live in peace. While he’s waiting to be crowned king over Israel, he was powerless to make things happen on his timetable.  A whole lot happens between chapter 2 and chapter 5, and through it all David only has peace when he focuses on God.

Out of timetables comes expectations, and we’ve all been gut-punched by those. We do such and such for so and so, and they respond with nothing much. Or maybe we didn’t get the recognition we think we deserve. Or we go into the next family event expecting our family to read our minds. We go in with an expectation for how we expect everyone to be, totally anticipating something THEY have no idea we are expecting…setting them up for failure!
When we write scenarios of our own making, we are opening ourselves up to be robbed of peace and focus.

Unmet expectations become so toxic. Our peace is destabilized when variables out of our control impede the results we wanted. In the quagmire of unmet expectations, we find the perfect breeding conditions for bitterness, resentment, and walls.

The only expectation that comes to true fruition is expectation in God…according to His will.
Skip and I started a habit at the beginning of our marriage of having a discussion before every family event regarding expectations. We recently visited his daughter, and our expectations were:

1. Have no agenda, so stress didn’t arrive with us
2. Attentive listening so she would feel known and cared for
3. Verbally admire the life she has built, because kids yearn for approval
4. Pour out only love and be funBecause our list aligned with the heart of God, because we took it to Him to ask for His help, AND because it included the only people we can control (us), we received all we asked for and expected!

So did David, and he became Israel’s longest reigning king.
 

Action Step
 
What unites us with King David?

1. We make timetables
2. We forfeit peace with misplaced expectations
3. He was victorious and we can be, too
4. There is freedom in relinquishing all expectations to God and accepting that only He can control outcomes
5. We will have what God has for us when we relinquish our control
6. Relinquish!

Prayer

From Proverbs 3:5-6 (MSG): 
God, I want to trust You from the bottom of my heart; I don't want to try to figure out everything on my own. Help me listen for Your voice in everything I do, everywhere I go; You are the one who will keep me on track. Amen.