When Things Don’t Go Your Way—let Your Character Speak

When Things Don’t Go Your Way—Let Your Character Speak

1 Samuel 18:1-4 Romans 12:1-2

9/12/2022

Have you ever had something coming to you that was rightfully yours and should have been given to you, but somehow you didn’t receive it. It could have been a promotion on a job that went to someone else. It could have been something a parent told you could have after their death, but another family member got it.

It could have been a race or a game that you should have won, but someone cheated and you lost. It could have been a spouse that you intended to spend a lifetime with, but someone else entered the picture and ended your dream. We don’t have to live long to realize, things don’t always go our way, even when we are in line to receive them.

The philosophy of the world tells us to get back at the other person by any means necessary or to pay them back for what they have done to you. Hate them with a passion. But we have this verse from Romans 12:1-2 telling us , “1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

How do we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice when things don’t go our way. Not only is it hard, it’s virtually impossible. Though we can’t do it on our own, if we allow Jesus to live in and through us we can watch it happen. God desires to develop a character within us that will speak in these situations far louder than our words ever could.

The key to not conforming to the pattern of this world is being transformed by the renewing of our minds. We do not have to think in the way the world wants us to think. Our minds have to be renewed by the word of God and a willingness to allow the mind of Christ to live inside of us.

Meet a young man who grew up in a royal family. He was humble, respectful, admired and developing into a very skillful soldier. As an adult he was an able warrior ready to fight by his father’s side. He had a strong faith in God and believed that God could deliver an army by the hands of either a few people or many.

He secretly attacked the Philistine army which led to great victory for God’s people. He and his armor bearer attacked 20 enemy soldiers and won, which set off another major victory for Israel. He was a true leader who had the respect and the admiration of the army.

Everyone knew that this guy was going to one day become a great king. He was a leader with a lot of charisma. He looked for the best in other people. The king himself looked forward to the day his son would become king.

His father’s name was King Saul, and his name was Jonathan. What really made Jonathan stand out, was that he wanted the best for the people of God, even at his own expense. He risked his life for the sake of others. Jonathan is forerunner of what God was going to do in Jesus Christ. Jonathan was more committed to seeing the will of God done, than he was in preserving his own status and even his own life. As Jesus would say, “I have not come to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me”, Jonathan realized that life was not all about him.

There was a giant warrior by the name of Goliath from the Philistine army. No one among King Saul’s army was willing to go out and fight him. There was a young man by the name of David who went and fought Goliath in the name of the Lord and won the battle.

David cut off Goliath’s head. Then Abner, the leader of the army, took David to King Saul. King Saul asked David a few questions about his background among other things. The King was pleased with David’s victory. Jonathan was there by the King’s side listening to all the praise and admiration that the King was giving to David who was close in age to Jonathan.

Jonathan could have become jealous that his father was heaping all this praise on David for his faith in fighting Goliath. He could have thought, “If only I had of gone out and tried to fight him, then my father would be praising me.” But that was not Jonathan’s character.