Memo 1091: The Main Thing
We are in a series, the third from the life of David, to help you understand how to thrive in your God-given purpose. This series is titled PowerPoints for Living and is designed to extract principles from David's example to help you live an abundant life.
David is mentioned quite a few times in the New Testament, and this week, let's look at a passage from Romans where Paul quoted him to substantiate a point he was making:
Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them”(Romans 4:4-8).
Let's dive in, shall we?
MANY ROLES
David wore man hats, so to speak. We see him as a shepherd, a warrior, a general, a husband, a fugitive, a leader-in-training, a father, a king, a prophet, an architect, an author, a musician, and a songwriter. That is quite an impressive list, wouldn't you say? He had magnificent successes and woeful failures and his legacy was almost lost on his deathbed when he failed to prepare properly for his successor. Yet through it all, the ups and downs, the good and bad, David was a spiritual man. Perhaps his most significant contribution was his collection of writings we know as the psalms.
In those psalms, David chronicled his life in the Lord. He wrote about what he learned about God, his spiritual journey, the lessons he felt were most important to pass on to future generations about his relationship with God. Even though he had many responsibilities and was undoubtedly quite busy, and even after he had achieved great success, David continued to write, teach, and talk about the Lord. He always found time to share his insight.
When Paul needed a good explanation of a concept named justification (an easy way to remember what it means is this: justified = just as if I'd never sinned), he went to Psalm 32 and quoted David! David took on spiritual, even theological issues, and shared what he saw. When all was said and done, David was a God follower and lover, nothing less but no more, and his insights were accepted not because he was the king and people had to accept them, but because he heard from the Lord and had something significant to say.
AND NOW YOU
I know you're a busy person. You have kids to raise and planes to catch and business to conduct and sermons to preach and life to live. Yet if you want to live the abundant life as David did, you must keep one thing uppermost in your mind: you are a servant of God. You are a disciple of Jesus and there's nothing more important than that, not your innovations or your creativity or your ministry. What's more, you have an obligation to find a way to share what you see and hear with others who need it. You can do that through teaching, writing, art, or investing yourself in some situation for which you don't get paid but in which you find many opportunities to offer your wisdom and experience.
As we close, let's summarize this week's PowerPoint for Living as follows:
Don't get so busy that you lose track of the fact you are a disciple of Christ, always learning and growing, with a mandate to share who you are and what God has shown you with others, even in foreign lands if God so directs.
In the midst of your success as God promotes you, keep the main thing the main thing and the main thing for David was his relationship with the Lord while then sharing the benefits of that with others. If you follow his example, you will enjoy a quality of life that will transcend the inevitable ups and downs of living as you carry out your God-given purpose. Have a blessed week.