1 Sam 30:8 And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
Enquire means ask. Ask of the Lord here in David’s case. Humble people ask. Proud people presume.
David was a superhero. He was credited with 10,000 KIA’s. David could win any battle. But he recognized that it was only by the grace of God, not DavidGod ultimately decided who won the victories. David, in his humility, learned the hard way to always enquired of the Lord before he did anything. Even if he was pretty sure he knew the answer, he enquired because he knew God liked it, and that it would save Him a lot of problems. God loves us and wants to talk to us. And He doesn’t exactly love it when we are presumptuous with him. By presumptuous I mean presuming you know God’s answer. Presuming on His goodness and permissiveness.
One of David’s trademarks was the he enquired of the Lord continually, after he learned his lessons. He got into a lot of problems and lost a lot during this learning curve. God knows best! He had a running conversation with God. David’s heart (in spite of all his failures) was conformed to God’s heart.
The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart” Sam. 13:14
I have an English/discipleship class on Fridays. Although I resisted doing this for a long time, I finally enquired of the Lord about it, He gave me a green light almost immediately. I knew He wanted me to do it for a long time, that’s why I didn’t ask Him. I knew He would tell me to do it. I knew that might cause problems.
With Winnie’s thyroid problem, the doctors say “let her rest as much as possible”. God is the enforcer of the doctor’s orders. He shows me the same thing, to protect Winnie’s peace and quiet at all cost, and let her sleep as much as possible. Yet when I enquired about the class, it was a solid go! And it worked out ok because Winnie is using that time to visit her sick mother, which is a constant worry of hers. A Win Win situation. No pun intended.
I say all that to say that not one of my students are presumptuous. I don’t have to watch them. We have had terrible problems over the years with presumptuous visitors. Our students are really God sent, literally! Not all are Christians YET, but all are extremely polite. I have to laugh because they ask to go to the bathroom a lot. (In English). I always tease them and torture them with weird answers (in English). But they never just assume. They are humble. They enquire first.
Humble people enquire. Proud people assume. God resists the proud. Enquiring of God is a two way conversation with God (like any real prayer). You ask Him humbly, and then you wait for His answer. Usually I get very quick response. He usually answers almost instantly by bringing to mind a Bible verse I read and memorized.
1 Peter 5:5 “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
David was humbled. He wasn’t always humble. He didn’t enquire always. Because of the resulting bad consequences, he learned his lesson the hard way. His bad marriages, bad sons, his adultery with Bathsheba and the cover-up murder, all were a result of him not prayfully enquiring of God. Sometimes we don’t enquire of God because we want to do something so badly we are afraid He’ll say no if we ask Him. And He probably would. Or like in my case with the English class, He might say yes!
Do you see that pattern? Humble people enquire of God and in return God is gracious. I look back and see every bad thing in my life happened when I didn’t enquire of God. To look even further, I see that I was proud and presumptuous. In God’s love, goodness and grace, He corrected me.
Romans 8:28 For all things work together for the good of those who love Him.
Learn from my and David’s mistakes. Enquire of the Lord, always. For every little thing. It doesn’t take days or weeks to get an answer as many religious people like to make it seem. For me it just a couple minutes, WHEN AND IF I REMEMBER TO DO IT. Shopping, helping people, whatever, keeping yourself earnestly enquiring demonstrates your humility. Keep on enquiring of God. The grace of God that comes when you humbly enquire of Him will save you hours or even years of the anguish.
God bless you!
Dean and Winnie Peters
Joyfully serving the ‘least of these’ in Managua Nicaragua