I wanted to cry. It had been a very long day at work. I was tired and frustrated, and the headache I nursed throughout the day was getting worse. I was mentally changing hats for the next phase of my day. There was so much for me to process and do. Yes, I wanted to cry.
I walked into the house and was gathering things to go upstairs when a simple gesture shifted my burdened heart. I said, “I want to cry” – but the tears were no longer from a burdened place. I rejoiced over the small gesture – a tiny act of thoughtfulness that came at the right time. I was swiftly catapulted into a posture of thankfulness. That one gesture redirected my heart, and I’m grateful for that. The Lord knew how I felt and He knew I needed a fresh wind to blow over my spirit. I am thankful for the reset.
As I sat down to work on today’s devotional, I tried to complete something else when my mind went back to last month when the Lord had me minister on the subject, “One Gesture.” It was one gesture that drove the story of Nabal, Abigail, and David.
It all started with David’s men providing safety and protection to Nabal’s shepherds. Some time afterward, David sent 10 men to Nabal and asked him to return the favor. Nabal never acknowledged David’s kindness and refused to help David’s men. That one gesture started a series of events that eventually ended in Nabal losing his life. Abigail’s one gesture came in the form of pleading for David not to destroy Nabal and all connected to him, including herself. David’s gesture of heeding Abigail’s plea for mercy changed everyone’s lives.
You may never know how much a simple gesture impacts a person/situation. But God knows. Sometimes, the actions we take or the small things we do may not seem like a big deal, and the enemy may try to hinder you from doing/saying a thing, but if God puts it on your heart, follow through with it. You may not realize how the Lord will use your simple but oh, so powerful gesture.
24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24 (KJV)
10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?12 So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert on the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.26 Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.30 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;31 That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.34 For in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died.39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.41 And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.42 And Abigail hasted, and arose and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. 1 Samuel 25:10-42 (KJV)
In the Master’s Service,
Author/Pastor Michele D Robertson
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29 (KJV)