Have you had a rough day today ? Maybe you have had a rough week , a rough month, or possibly a rough year? Life is full of challenges that can be rough as nails sometimes.
Rough times eventually creep into our lives no matter how much we try to avoid them. It could be months or moments before the rough times visit your life. We have no way of knowing when rough times will visit us. They just show up with no warning. To my surprise last week my daughter totaled her car. She had been accident free for eight years, and one Saturday it happened. You just never know when the rough times will show up, but the good thing is the rough times don’t come to stay they just show up like a cold, and they are gone in a few days.
So how do we navigate the rough times when they visit our life? The good news is that God has given us some great examples throughout His word of how His people successfully got through the rough times. David is a great example of someone who experienced the rough times, and kept his faith through some challenging trials.
When we first meet David in the scriptures he is having a rough time. Samuel showed up at David’s house to anoint one of Jesse’s son as the future king, and David’s dad went and lined up all his sons with the exception of David for Samuel to anoint one of them. One by one they walked by Samuel and one by one Samuel said no this isn’t the one. When none of the seven sons were the chosen one, Samuel had to ask David’s dad if he had any more sons? David’s dad had forgotten that David was taking care of the sheep, and it had never occurred to his dad that David could be the chosen one! David’s Father didn’t believe in him. That has to be rough.
To make matters worse, David’s brothers also didn’t believe in him, and made fun of him. No one thought David had a chance against Goliath. After David had killed Goliath Saul became jealous and tried to kill him for 13 years. David literally ran for his life for 13 long years. With that kind of difficulty we can all agree David had a rough life, and throughout the book of Psalms David teaches us what we need to do when we are experiencing rough times. Are you going through something that is rough right now? If you are, David demonstrated consistently that during his rough times he would always:
Refocus
On
Uncovering
God’s
Hope
Throughout Psalms, David would get in a quiet place and refocus his eyes away from his problem, and on his God. Today instead of looking at your problem, refocus on God’s promises- you will be glad you did!