Strong in My God

For two weeks we have watched தேவன் kept at a distance. Saul handed Him back to the prophet three times as "the LORD your God" and lost the kingdom. Israel fetched the ark like a talisman, wanting the power without the presence, and lost the glory. Today we finally hear the word we have been waiting for - என் தேவன், my God. And it is not spoken from a throne. It is spoken in the ashes of Ziklag.

"But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God." - 1 Samuel 30:6 (NKJV)

"தாவீது தன் தேவனாகிய கர்த்தருக்குள்ளே தன்னைத் திடப்படுத்திக்கொண்டான்." - 1 சாமுவேல் 30:6 (TAOVBSI)

Hear this and take heart: "my God" is not forged in the win but in the ruin. That is good news for every broken person reading this.

What Happens in 1 Samuel 30 · 1 சாமுவேல் 30-ல் நடந்தது

David and his six hundred men return home to Ziklag (சிக்லாக்) and find it burned to the ground. The Amalekites have swept through and carried off every wife and every child. Scripture says they lifted up their voices and wept until they had no strength left to weep - பலன் இல்லாமல் போகும் மட்டும் அழுதார்கள்.

Then the grief turns bitter. These are the six hundred men David had kept all those years in the wilderness - he fed them, protected them, did them every good he could. They lost their families too; everyone lost, everyone wept. But now the people whom David had carried begin to speak of stoning him (கல்லெறிதல்). Stoning is a dreadful death sentence - they would have killed him with the very stones in their hands. And would stoning David have brought back a single wife or child? Certainly not. Grief does not reason. David is more alone than he has ever been - no home, no family, and now no friends.

Notice where the wound comes from. Trouble like this rarely comes from strangers. It comes through the people closest to us - our own family, our relatives, our near friends, the very people we have done good to. Their words fall on us like stones and cut deep. Have you stood in that place?

And what do most of us do there? We say, "Lord, I am so pressed I cannot read the Bible. Jesus, I am in such trouble I cannot pray. I cannot even come to church - forgive me." And we sit at home, sunk. Has a single problem ever been solved that way? Never. But watch what David does. The verse turns on one line: David strengthened himself in the LORD HIS God. He took hold of தேவன் with his own two hands. Then he inquired of the LORD, pursued the raiders, and recovered all (vv. 8, 18-19) - nothing missing, small or great. Intimacy moved him from the ashes to the victory.

My God Is for the Surrendered, Not the Sinless · இருதயத்தைப் பார்க்கிறார்

"For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV)

"மனுஷன் பார்க்கிறபடி நான் பாரேன்; மனுஷன் முகத்தைப் பார்ப்பான்; கர்த்தரோ இருதயத்தைப் பார்க்கிறார் என்றார்." - 1 சாமுவேல் 16:7 (TAOVBSI)

Before we stand in the ashes with David, remember how he was chosen in the first place. Man looks at the outward; the LORD looks at the heart (இருதயம்). David was not the tallest of his brothers, and by the end of his life he did not have the cleanest record either. He sinned greatly later - Bathsheba, the census. So "a man after His own heart" cannot mean flawless (குற்றமற்ற).

It means one for whom தேவன் is personal. When David fell, he ran back (சங்கீதம் 51). He did not manage his image; he threw himself on mercy. I take great comfort here - my qualification is not a clean record but a returning heart (திரும்புகிற இருதயம்).

So stop believing the lie that your failures have disqualified you from calling Him "mine" (என் தேவன்). The door home is still open.

My God Is Proven at the Bottom · சிக்லாகிலே திடன்

"Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God." - 1 Samuel 30:6 (NKJV)

"தாவீது மிகவும் நெருக்கப்பட்டான்; ஜனங்கள் தங்கள் குமாரர் குமாரத்திகளினிமித்தம் மனங்கசந்து, அவனைக் கல்லெறியவேண்டும் என்று சொல்லிக்கொண்டார்கள்; ஆனாலும் தாவீது தன் தேவனாகிய கர்த்தருக்குள் தன்னைத் திடப்படுத்திக்கொண்டான்." - 1 சாமுவேல் 30:6 (TAOVBSI)

Everyone had left David. There was no crowd to please now, no reputation left to protect. Only him and his God. And that is exactly when he strengthened himself (திடப்படுத்திக்கொண்டான்). No one could encourage him, so he encouraged himself IN the LORD HIS God. The pronoun (சொந்தம்) is the strength. When you have "the God", you look for a rescue; when you have "MY God" (என் தேவன்), you have a refuge (அடைக்கலம்) even before the rescue comes.

What does it mean to strengthen yourself in the LORD? It means to be made strong in the spirit. Our spirit and the Spirit of தேவன் stay in living contact - "deep calls unto deep," the psalmist says (சங்கீதம் 42:7); His Spirit calls out to ours, drawing us to stay joined to Him. And the devil knows it. He works to weary the spirit - piling up losses, humiliations, wounds, tears upon tears - until the mind can think of nothing else and the spirit's connection with தேவன் goes slack. When the spirit sags, everything sags. Scripture asks the question plainly:

"The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?" - Proverbs 18:14 (NKJV)

"மனுஷனுடைய ஆவி அவன் பலவீனத்தைத் தாங்கும்; முறிந்த ஆவி யாரால் தாங்கக்கூடும்?" - நீதிமொழிகள் 18:14 (TAOVBSI)

Look at what a broken spirit is doing around us. Whole families, even with little children, are ending their own lives because the spirit inside them broke and they saw no other way. Write it into your daily prayer list: not for the dead, but for the living who are being pushed toward that edge, that the Lord would meet them. Pray it every day, and He will meet someone.

The actor Ramesh Khanna told his story in a video I watched recently. He had acted in many films and had every comfort, and then came a cancer diagnosis. The weariness crushed him - and the people who came to see him pressed him further down. Even Kamal Haasan looked at him and said, "Aiyo, what has become of you?" That is how people talk around a sickbed; their words take the six months of life you have and finish it in six minutes. He decided he would not die slowly and shamefully of cancer. He drove his car up a hill road, planning to go over a four hundred foot drop so that everyone would call it an accident. As he was about to turn the car, an auto rickshaw cut across in front of him and stopped. The driver got out, walked away, and simply disappeared. Annoyed, he looked at the auto - and written on it was a verse: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" - நான் உன்னைவிட்டு விலகுவதுமில்லை, உன்னைக் கைவிடுவதுமில்லை (எபிரெயர் 13:5). Autos carry every kind of slogan; this one carried the word of தேவன். "Jesus spoke to me through that auto," he says. "I turned back." He is alive today.

Let me tell you my own portion of this. I almost never weep in front of people. My weeping and my tears belong to my God alone. There have been times I cried out in His presence until it felt like my heart would come out through my mouth. If you saw my old Bible, its pages carry the dried edges of those tears, drop by drop. And தேவன் has never once forsaken me.

So hear it again: your worst day is not proof He left. It may be the very day "my God" finally becomes real (மெய்யாகும் நாள்).

My God Strengthens Your Own Hands · உன் கைகளைத் திடப்படுத்துகிறார்

"...Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." - 1 Samuel 30:8 (NKJV)

"...அதைப் பின் தொடர்; அதை நீ பிடித்து, சகலத்தையும் திருப்பிக்கொள்வாய் என்றார்." - 1 சாமுவேல் 30:8 (TAOVBSI)

"Strengthened" means David did not wait to feel strong. He took strength by faith (விசுவாசத்தால்) while he was still weeping. And then he moved. He did not stay in the ashes feeling sorry for himself; a man who has "my God" gets up off the ground.

Notice also what David did NOT do. He never once turned on his men to argue his case - "I fed six hundred of you all these years, I protected you, and this is your gratitude?" Not a word of it. Mark this well: the people you do good to are often the first to turn against you. Do not forget it, and do not waste your strength pleading your own cause with them.

Instead, David went and asked counsel of தேவன்: shall I pursue? And the LORD answered him beautifully: pursue, overtake, and you will recover all. Where do we go for counsel when trouble comes? We go from person to person. Parents do this over their children's marriages - one relative says this alliance, another says that one; this man has a bungalow and a car, that one has a job; opinions pour in from every side. No. Get on your knees and ask தேவன் for counsel. He will lead you rightly. Take your counsel from men and act on it, and it will surely end wrong.

I will tell you a story from my own ministry about letting Him fight. In one town we had rented a house for worship, with a fifty thousand rupee advance. One day the landlady announced that her daughter's engagement was that Sunday and we must vacate immediately. We moved out within two days - a dear brother gave us the roofed space behind his shop, and we worshipped there. Then the advance never came back. Calls went unanswered. When at last I traced the family and we sat down over the accounts, they counted four months' rent against us for a house we had emptied in two days, added the commercial rate for a farm motor, and even billed us four thousand rupees for a charmed metal plate they had brought from Madhukkur and now could not find. My blood boiled. And the Spirit of God spoke inside me: do not resist the evil person. Like water thrown on boiling milk, the anger went down. Back home, everyone urged me on: "Don't let that woman go. Go to the police. File a case." The anger climbed again - and the Lord gave me a word from Proverbs: do not say, "I will recompense evil" (நீதிமொழிகள் 20:22). It settled again. When they pressed me a third time, He spoke a third time: whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. So I let it go, and I have not fought that woman since. If I fight, the blows fall on me; if I place it in His hands, the LORD Himself wages war for me (யாத்திராகமம் 14:14) - whether to save that woman or to correct her is His business, not mine. When the weight of the lost fifty thousand kept returning, I finally prayed one prayer: "Jesus, this money matter is hammering my head and blocking my ministry. Today I hand the whole thing to You. I do not need this money. I need souls. Let the purpose You brought me here for be fulfilled." And I told the church, please, no one raise this with me again.

Remember Pharaoh. தேவன் hardened Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh and all his armies would learn that the LORD is God, mighty and strong, and that He wages war for His people - all the way to the Red Sea, where the sea swallowed the enemy whole and His name was glorified. It may be that the hearts of the people troubling you have been left hard for the same reason: so that He can show He fights for you. So do not fight for yourself. Waging war is the LORD's work; pleading our cause is His work; repaying is His work. Commit it into His hand and be at peace - that is the one thing we find hardest, carrying the whole load on our own heads instead.

And see the outcome at Ziklag: David recovered all - ஒன்றும் குறைவுபடாமல், nothing lacking, not so much as a pin gone missing. That is the difference. Go and fight your own battle and you may claw back a little. Strengthen yourself in the LORD, ask His counsel, and follow it, and nothing will be missing.

I have learned to preach to myself before I preach to anyone else - to strengthen my own soul (என் ஆத்துமா) in Him first. When no one will lift you, take hold of Him yourself (நீயே அவரைப் பற்றிக்கொள்). That is a grown believer's secret, and it is available to you.

Now Strengthen Another's Hand · மற்றவன் கையையும் திடப்படுத்து

But the story must not end with you. Look at what came to David in an earlier wilderness, when he was hiding from Saul in the woods of Ziph, hunted for his life:

"Then Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God." - 1 Samuel 23:16 (NKJV)

"அப்பொழுது சவுலின் குமாரனாகிய யோனத்தான் எழுந்து, காட்டிலிருக்கிற தாவீதினிடத்தில் போய், தேவனுக்குள் அவன் கையைத் திடப்படுத்தி." - 1 சாமுவேல் 23:16 (TAOVBSI)

Think about who Jonathan was. Saul's son - the crown prince. By every human reckoning the throne was his next. Saul even scolded him for it: you keep friendship with that man, yet only when he is dead does the kingdom come to you; you are ruining yourself. If Jonathan had run the calculation, nothing would have been easier than to betray David - befriend him, lead him out, hand him to the soldiers. Instead Jonathan walked into the forest, found the hunted man, and strengthened his hand in தேவன்: "Do not fear. You will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you - even my father knows it" (1 சாமுவேல் 23:17).

That is the opposite of how we live. We run every decision through profit and loss - what do I gain if I do this, what do I lose if I don't - and we take our direction from that arithmetic and from other people's advice, while the counsel of தேவன் is pushed aside. And when the spirit has no strength in it, a pressed moment produces a panicked, wrong decision. Jonathan had strength in his own spirit first; only a man standing firm can steady another.

So ask yourself honestly: do you strengthen anyone? Our usual answer is, "Why take on the bother? I have a mountain of my own work. Let each one's fate be; the Lord will look after them." And we sit comfortable while people around us lie in darkness, in tears, in pits, without one word of the Word to hold. Week after week we take in the word of the LORD like a rich feast and never digest it into anyone else's life - we grow fat on it while people starve for it, and we never spare them a minute's thought. Jesus looks at them and weeps; we do not even look.

There was a team once in this church - an evangelism band: Mary, Maragathammal, Ruthammal. Week after week they would take some street, knock on the houses, talk with people in whatever words they knew, share the good news, and pray. If they found someone too sick or too broken, they would come and fetch me: "Pastor, you come." That is how this church grew; that is how souls came in - Ruthammal herself came to the Lord that way, found in her own house by the other two. Where has that band gone? If Mary is no longer here, can no one else take her place? Some of you mothers come to worship, eat your lunch, and settle into a comfortable Sunday sleep. Give one hour. One day a week, sacrifice that nap, gather three or four of you, and go and talk to people - your own relatives, your own friends, your own street; you already know them all. And not only the women. Men, do not say "what do we know?" From the youth to the grandfathers, every one of you can speak of Jesus inside your own circle.

You do not need a sermon to do it. Look at the Lord Himself with the Samaritan woman at the well. He did not open with "I am the way, the truth, and the life; receive Me." He opened a conversation: "Give Me a drink." She talked, He listened and answered, and by the end she left her waterpot and ran into the town. And what was the gospel she preached there? Four words: "வந்து பாருங்கள்" - Come and see. The whole town came, and they begged Jesus to stay with them. Your testimony can be that small: come and see. Those whom தேவன் has appointed to eternal life will surely receive Him. And do not write anyone off - not the backslider, not the "hopeless case." There is no person the Lord cannot bring into salvation; Jesus is the true light that lights every kind of man.

Only remember the order: first strengthen yourself. My own legs must be planted firm before I can bend down and lift someone who has fallen. Strengthen yourself in the spirit, in the LORD - and then go lift the fallen and strengthen their hands too.

And see how தேவன் repaid Jonathan. Years later, king David went looking: is there anyone left of Jonathan's house? There was - Mephibosheth, lame in both feet. If it were us, we might have arranged a monthly allowance and moved on. David restored to him every field of Saul, set servants to farm them for him, and seated him at the king's own table to eat bread daily like one of the king's sons - a lame man, dining in the palace in Jerusalem (2 சாமுவேல் 9). "You prepare a table before me... You anoint my head with oil" - we know Psalm 23 by heart; this is where it turns into flesh. When you strengthen someone in தேவன், when you lift them into the light and bring them into His house, the LORD sees it, and He will repay it without fail - a seat at the King's table. Not one minute you spend for Him, not one hour spent strengthening a soul, will ever be wasted; your portion is kept.

The pattern runs right into the New Testament. Saul of Tarsus stood guard over the coats while Stephen was stoned, then went from city to city with letters, dragging out everyone who prayed in the name of Jesus. On the Damascus road the Lord met him, and notice the first thing the trembling man said: not a call for human help, though his eyes had gone dark, but "Lord, what do You want me to do?" When trouble breaks you, when தேவன் puts His finger on your fault, is that your question? And the Lord's answer was to send a man - Ananias - who laid hands on him and prayed. The scales fell from his eyes; he saw, rose, was baptised, ate food, and was strengthened - and without delay he began to preach in the synagogues that Christ is the Son of God (அப்போஸ்தலர் 9). One strengthened hand, and the persecutor became the apostle. We who are baptised still walk with scales of our own - blindness the enemy has laid over our eyes so that we cannot see His brightness or walk in His light, no strength in the spirit at all. The same prayer removes them.

Strength Made Perfect in Weakness · பெலவீனத்தில் பூரணமாகும் பலம்

Where did Paul's strength come from after that? Read his own ledger: labours more abundant, beatings above measure, prisons, deaths faced again and again; five times the thirty-nine stripes from the Jews, three times beaten with rods, once stoned, three times shipwrecked, a night and a day in the deep; perils of rivers, robbers, his own countrymen, false brethren; weariness, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, fastings, cold and nakedness (2 கொரிந்தியர் 11:23-27). And on top of all of it, a thorn in the flesh. He begged the Lord three times to remove it. The answer he received is this morning's second reading:

"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." - 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV)

"அதற்கு அவர்: என் கிருபை உனக்குப்போதும்; பலவீனத்திலே என் பலம் பூரணமாய் விளங்கும் என்றார். ஆகையால், கிறிஸ்துவின் வல்லமை என்மேல் தங்கும்படி, என் பலவீனங்களைக்குறித்து நான் மிகவும் சந்தோஷமாய் மேன்மைபாராட்டுவேன்." - 2 கொரிந்தியர் 12:9 (TAOVBSI)

Some Bible scholars say Paul's thorn was a diseased eye - he did write to the Galatians, "you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me," and they picture a weeping, unsightly eye that made him hard to look at. I do not know. But this much is certain: some real weakness sat in his flesh and kept pricking him like a thorn, and தேவன் chose not to remove it but to fill it: My grace is enough; My strength is made perfect precisely there.

Set that against us. Today we will fight for anything except the faith. Whatever profits me, whatever is good for my family and my children - for that I will struggle; for Jesus, for my faith, I will not contend at all. There is no zeal (வைராக்கியம்) burning in us for the LORD. We deny Him where it costs, come back when it is convenient, deny again, return again - a foot in two boats, and whoever stands in two boats goes straight into the water. Think of why the Lord separates sheep from goats. The sheep walks with its head bowed behind the shepherd; you will never see a sheep climbing into the neighbour's plot. The goat cannot stay - one green patch there, one mouthful here, always running to wherever looks greener. Live like that, grazing on every worldly advantage, and at the end you stand with the goats. What decides it is faith - whether we actually believed the One who shed His blood for us, who left the glory of heaven and came down for us.

So if sickness has worn you down, if your own weakness has you saying "what will happen to my children if I die, who will look after them" - drop all that turmoil. The LORD adds to your days. One thing is needed, and only one: faith, held in a spirit that has been strengthened in Him. In every struggle of my life I have asked for a single thing: "இயேசப்பா, இதைத் தாங்கிக்கொள்ள எனக்குப் பலன் தாங்க - Jesus, give me the strength to bear this." He strengthened me then, and He is strengthening me to this day; that is why I fear nothing and worry over nothing. This is the good fight Paul talks about - the world struggles too, but our struggle is different: we fight to keep the faith. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." And at the end the Lord waits for us with the crown of life - the crown, the sign of royal honour, the Mephibosheth seat at the King's table for everyone who, whatever the gain or the loss, whoever and whatever had to be let go, said: I will strengthen myself in the LORD and stand.

And you do not stand alone. Hear what the Lord Jesus told Peter before Peter's worst night:

"But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren." - Luke 22:32 (NKJV)

"நானோ உன் விசுவாசம் ஒழிந்துபோகாதபடிக்கு உனக்காக வேண்டிக்கொண்டேன்; நீ குணப்பட்டபின்பு உன் சகோதரரை ஸ்திரப்படுத்து என்றார்." - லூக்கா 22:32 (TAOVBSI)

The Lord Himself is interceding for you right now - for exactly this, that your faith would not die out. And His charge to Peter is His charge to you, and it is this whole sermon in one line: when you have been strengthened, strengthen your brothers.

Conclusion · முடிவுரை

Set the two kings side by side one last time. Saul - richer, safer, more in control - said "YOUR God" and lost everything. David, in the ashes of Ziklag, said "MY God" and recovered all (சகலத்தையும்). It was never about the amount of sin or the amount of success. It was always about the pronoun - உன் தேவன் or என் தேவன்.

So in your Ziklag, do not wait to feel strong. Take hold of Him now (இப்பொழுதே பற்றிக்கொள்) and rise.

Declaration Prayer · அறிக்கை ஜெபம்

பிதாவே, என் சிக்லாகிலே நான் உம்மைப் பற்றிக்கொள்ளுகிறேன். நீர் சபையின் தேவன் மட்டுமல்ல, நீர் என் தேவன். உமக்குள்ளே நான் என்னைத் திடப்படுத்திக்கொள்ளுகிறேன்; சாம்பலிலிருந்து எழுந்து உம்மைப் பின்பற்றுகிறேன். இயேசுவின் நாமத்தில், ஆமென்.

Father, in my Ziklag I take hold of You. You are not only the church's God; You are my God. In You I strengthen myself; I rise from the ashes and follow You. In Jesus' name, Amen.

One Thing This Week · இந்த வாரம் ஒன்று மட்டும்

This week, in your lowest moment, do what David did - say out loud, "You are MY God," and take one step forward instead of staying down.

Next Sunday - the final part of உன் தேவனா, என் தேவனா?, and it is a Holy Communion Sunday.