You Can Get Back What You Have Lost!
While David and his men were off fighting, the Amalekites destroyed their homes and took their families captive. First, David’s army wept. Second, they looked to David for guidance. Third, David sought God, saying, ‘“Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”’ Notice four important points:
(1) Satan will attack your loved ones to get to you. It may be big stuff like your husband losing his job or your wife discovering a lump in her breast, or little stuff like a family argument and lack of consideration for each other. You need to stay alert and discern Satan’s attacks so you can defend yourself against them.
(2) Love people but lean only on God. The people David fought side by side with one day turned against him the next day. That’s why your strength, strategies, and solutions for living must come from God, not others.
(3) Talk to yourself in the right way. ‘David encouraged himself in the Lord.’ (1 Samuel 30:6 KJV) If you want to end up discouraged, talk about your situation. If you want to be encouraged, talk to the One who can change your situation—the Lord. The Bible says, ‘A wholesome [uplifting, positive, inspiring] tongue is a tree of life.’ (Proverbs 15:4 NKJV) So learn to talk to yourself in the right way.
(4) You can get back what you have lost. God told David, ‘Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.’ And what God did for David and his men that day, He will do for you if you seek Him.
Jonah 2 ()
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2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the LORD,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
10 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Luke 11:29–36 ()
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29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”