I tried
out the Bibliolog interactive Bible study method (which we learnt from Birte Papenhausen recently) during a parents’ prayer meeting today, with the passage taken
from 1 Sam 30:1-19. You can read my prepared script here. The parents found it very refreshing as the method helped
us to immerse ourselves in the story and experience it first-hand as though we
were one (or a few) of the characters. It also opened our hearts to allow the
Holy Spirit to speak into our own lives and situations.
Even
while I was preparing the script, I had received great encouragement from the
example of David. He sought the Lord in a time of great distress and found
strength in the Lord (v.6). Not only that, when he enquired of the Lord, he was
told that he would succeed in rescuing their wives and children who had been
taken captive (v.7-8). From these verses, I was reminded to look to God no
matter how bad things may be and to trust that in Him, we will have victory over
all obstacles and circumstances. This is especially relevant for parents who,
like David, may feel that they have lost their children to various bondages
like addictions, sexual sin, depression or loss of faith. Regardless of how
far away they may seem, we can be assured that God is watching over them, He is
in control and He will bring them home one day!
During
the Bible study this morning, from the responses the parents gave as well as my
own thoughts as we went along, I also realised that sometimes we are like the
captive wives and children. We may have yielded to sin and find ourselves
separated from our family, church and God. But God will not let us go and He
continues to pursue us with His love, just as David and his men did not give up
the rescue mission even when some among them were too exhausted to go on (v.10).
At times,
we may be like those '200 men' who had to stay back. We may feel helpless and
unable to do anything to help our children when they are in trouble or even suffering.
Instead, we have to rely on others to reach out to our children to lead them
out of pain or darkness. For instance, children who shut us out and refuse to
talk or listen may need counsellors or youth group leaders to speak with them,
or children who are seriously ill would need doctors to heal them. In such
cases, all we can do is wait and pray – not only for the results but also for
those ‘400 men’ who are battling to save our children.
Finally,
while putting ourselves in the shoes of one of the men who had gone out with
David and returned victorious, I saw that there are occasions when we may misunderstand
the intentions of others. Imagine if the men thought that David was wasting
their time or had given up on the rescue mission when he went away to pray, and
they had gone off on their own without him or even stoned him to death! Either
way, I doubt they would have been successful in retrieving their wives,
children and all the plunder. We also need to be patient and give others the
benefit of the doubt rather than jump to conclusions and worse still, act or
speak rashly against them. In fact, we should stay humble and be willing to learn
from others, especially from men and women of faith how to relate with and
trust in God.
