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1 Samuel 30 – Praying through the Bible #97 – A Prayer for Success
Success. Few words in the English language have more power and allure than “success.” In sports, success is often narrowly defined as defeating an opponent. Success means winning. Winning means someone loses. Success also means teamwork. Golf, of course is a team of one, oh, except professional golfers don’t carry their bags, do they? Coaches preach, “There is no ‘I’ in team.” Quipsters like myself would snarkily say, “There is an ‘I’ in win.” Maybe that’s why my best position was the bench! Sadly, teamwork becomes lost in the glamor of “me.” Oftentimes when we succeed, our success makes us fail. As there are sore losers, there are bad winners. When in the spiritual world, the fail is even sadder.
As is his nature, before David advances towards a goal, he prays: “Should I pursue these raiders? Will I overtake them?” (1 Samuel 30.7). These Amalekites “raiders” had kidnapped all the family members of David and his companions (30.1-3), along with stealing their possessions. Such sorrow overcame them, these warrior men wept until they had no strength left to weep (30.4). David is praying for both permission to pursue and for success. God says yes. While David says “I,” soon we shall see David does not mean “Me, myself and I alone.”
Six hundred men begin, but 200 stop en route by the Wadi Besor because they are too exhausted. Unable to continue, they contribute to the cause by staying with the supplies (30.24). I wonder if they are they still physically spent because earlier they had wept until exhaustion. Those left to trudge forward find an Egyptian slave of the raiders who leads them to their foes. Success follows, followed by failure. Upon returning triumphantly to the 200 left behind, “all the corrupt and worthless men among those who had gone with David argued, ‘Because they didn’t go with us, we will not give any of the plunder recovered to them except for each man’s wife and children” (30.22).
Now notice David’s wisdom: “My brothers” – camaraderie and comradeship. “You must not do this with what the LORD has given us” – blessings come from God. “He protected us and handed over to us the raiders who came against us” – Power and protection come from God (30.23). Then David adds, “The share of the one who goes into battle is to be the same as the share of the one who remains with the supplies. They will share equally” (30.24) – the ones staying behind contribute in their own way.
Therefore, success comes from recognizing 1) we are in this together; 2) everyone has different contributions; 3) God is the source of triumph. That’s success in a few words.
Prayer Challenge: Pride and selfishness manifests when we give ourselves credit and discredit the contributions and importance of others. Pray not to fail when we succeed.
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