Willing to Endure...

Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today.” (2 Samuel 16:9-12 ESV) As David trod through the deepest days of his life, he had a very realistic perspective. He knew that some of his suffering was due to his own sin - his different wives, his adultery, and other bad choices had brought him to this point. But he also knew that some of it was unjust: Absalom did not have the right to take the throne by deception or force, and many of the accusations made against him were untrue. Yet, he was willing to go through the scrutiny of suffering and be sifted. He was willing to allow God to use this experience clinging to the proven hope that God is good and just and dependable. What are we willing to endure without complaint or retaliation, so God can purify us and bring the truth to light? Are we willing to let God be God?