Get Up Or Give Up?

Opening illustration: A young gentleman walked into the church that we were attending and ministering at in Massachusetts. He had decided to finish his life that night. His life had been in the fast lane, nothing had come out of it. He had been in numerous relations and being a lorry driver he had a girl in every port. This had made him detest himself and now it seemed his life was going downhill with all the crazy stuff going on in his life. His mother had prayed for him and had requested him to go to church. He had never heeded to her but now after deciding to kill himself, he thought to honor her last request. He had walked into the wrong church. The two hours he spent there listening to God’s Word and being ministered to, his life had a U turn. He did not give up but got up and overcame his difficult situation by God’s grace. Today he attends a mega church in Mass. and is discerning who God would lead to be his life partner.

Let us catch up with David’s story in 2 Samuel 12 and see the difficult situation he was going through and also find out whether he gave up or got up. And how did he go about it.

Introduction: David now penned the Psalm 51: 1, in which, though he had been assured that his sin was pardoned, he prays earnestly for pardon, and greatly laments his sin. He was willing to bear the shame of it, to have it ever before him, to be continually upbraided with it. God gives us leave to be earnest with him in prayer for particular blessings, from trust in his power and general mercy, though we have no particular promise to build upon. David patiently submitted to the will of God in the death of one child, and God made up the loss to his advantage, in the birth of another.

David had sinned a sin which penalized him for capital punishment during those days. He allowed his eyes to sin by looking upon a married woman and committed adultery; got her husband killed, without hesitation prophet Nathan confronted him and made him realize his sin. The son that was born to him died because someone had to bear his sin as God had pardoned David. He was in agony of the heinous sins he had committed and the death of his son. How would he be able to go / come through it all?

How can we get up and overcome our difficult situations?

1. Repentance (vs. 13 – 14)

David, as an adulterer, was condemned to death by the law of God; and he had according to that law passed sentence of death upon himself. God alone, whose law that was could revoke that sentence, or dispense with its execution; therefore Nathan, who had charged the guilt home upon his conscience, is authorized to give him the assurance that he should not die a temporal death for it: The Lord hath put away thy sin; you shall not die. God has transferred the legal punishment of this sin to the child; He shall die, you shall not die; and this is the very point on which the prophet gives him the most direct information: The child that is born to you shall surely die.

Ref: The death of the first born ~ the lamb was killed for saving the Jewish first born; Yahweh gave us His only begotten son for our redemption.

2. Fasting, Prayer & Humility (v. 16)

The death of the infant child of one of the numerous harem of an Oriental monarch would in general be a matter of little moment to the father. The deep feeling shown by David on this occasion is both an indication of his affectionate and tender nature, and also a proof of the strength of his passion for Bath-sheba. He went into his most private chamber, his closet Matthew_6: 6, and “lay upon the earth” 2 Samuel_13: 31, rather “the ground,” meaning the floor of his chamber as opposed to his couch.

• Fasting for repentance, disciplining oneself and feasting in the Lord.

• Prayer to commune and hear God at the most. Thinking by his constant prayer that God would have restored his child, but God had determined otherwise.

• Humility, which can turn God’s heart around ~ remember the Ninevites.

3. Rise from the ground (v. 17, 20)

Approach your situation as a strong man / woman of God. Draw on God’s strength for facing the immediate and coming storm. There is a time to humble before God and then there is a time to rise above the issues and face them and deal with them with the God given strength. There is nothing that God allows in our lives which is beyond the strength that He provides for His grace is sufficient for us. A promise He gave to Paul even when he asked thrice to remove that discomforting thorn in his life. We all have thorns in our lives. How we react and deal with it counts before God.