July 31st, 2024

Today is July 31.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.   
  
Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”    
   
Today’s reading is from the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 20.   
  

In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. (The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.”   
After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most. Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.  
  

This story is the description of two dear friends speaking in code to one another through what looked like archery practice… Jonathan – who is Saul’s son – telling his dear friend David that his father Saul was in a rage against David…. So much so that David’s life changed in that instant, and he was cast out of the house of Saul. This is why the two friends wept. David had been cut off, and nothing would be the same for him. Jonathan was losing a best friend, and would only see David once again in his life. Have you ever experienced this kind of abrupt loss in your life? Where something that was once so good was torn away from you?  
   
Listen again to this code-language of arrows where one friend is secretly telling the other life-interrupting news. Listen to the two friends weep as they say goodbye to one another. Think about what David would have felt – David, who had been a hero, and a guest in the court of King Saul… and who was now an outcast…  And as you listen, bring an experience of your own loss before the Lord.  
   
Have you ever been interrupted by difficult news? Have you ever realized that the future you thought was locked in, is now unattainable? Have you ever felt like David did: full of sadness at the unfairness of it all? Take all of this to the Lord as we end our time of prayer. Listen to His words of consolation to you. 
  
Music: Be Still - Vineyard Worship - YouTube