1 Samuel 19:18 – “David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth”.
Samuel was the voice of God to the nation at that time. Samuel carried an anointing, and a presence, that impacted the whole nation at his day. So then, he ran into the presence of God, when he suffered injustice, rejection and misunderstanding. Where do you go? Do you get angry, and nut off? Do you isolate, and get full of self-pity; have a pity-party, all on your own? You've invited no one - and no one wants to come?
I've been there many times. Depression comes with it - angry at yourself, angry at what's happened, feeling powerless; self-destructive thoughts come. It's a terrible thing; but he didn't do that! He ran in to the presence of God! He ran in to the presence of God, to hear fresh from God for his life.
The one thing you must learn to do, when you face misunderstandings, rejection, and injustice, is to reach into the presence of God. Get alone with God and start to worship Him. Let your grief, sorrow, and injustice go before Him, until you come to the place of rest in Him - and then ask Him: what should I do?
Most people react angrily. They rebel; they get sulky; and get self-pity. They go out and have a drink, a smoke, and start to do things. A lot of the issues that young people struggle with now are rooted in rejection, injustice and misunderstanding. Instead of turning into God, they begin to turn inwards, and hate themselves; then try to find a way of comforting themselves through drugs, alcohol, or sexual relationships - all kinds of stuff like that. You must learn to consciously choose to bring your pain to the Lord - that was the thing that David did.
Psalm 142:4 – “I look to the left, and the right. No man cared for my soul.”
Then he came into the presence of God, and discovered intimacy, and God's love and acceptance for him. How are you going to reach into the love of God when you desperately need to be loved? Don't reach for people; reach into God and begin to start to open your heart to Him.
I can remember hours, over a period of a long time, in facing emotional pain and grief - learning how to worship God, and to express the pain and grief of the heart, and to come and lay it before Him - sometimes on my face, weeping. It just took time; but then I'd begin to start to encounter His presence, hear His words. He'd tell me what to do.
The situations were painful. I wouldn't want to go through most of those again, but they drove me to find and discover God in a deeper way. You need to do that, otherwise whenever there's misunderstanding, you will have to prove you're right. Whenever you're rejected, you will react, and reject others. Whenever you have injustice, you will angrily try to beat the others down, or prove you're right, instead of being able to come to the Lord, and get wisdom on what to do. God will give you the wisdom, but you've got to learn how to connect to Him when you're in pain; because most of us, when we're in pain, are just overwhelmed by the pain. Get some music, be alone with God, and begin to play music, select some songs that work for you. Music is a language of the soul, so certain songs will express emotions, feelings, and even the cry of the heart.
Sometimes when we're hurt, it's hard to put it in words. What's wrong? Um… I don't know. Well, you've got to do better than that. It's your job to communicate what's in your heart. Take time to get what's in your heart out. I like that song “Lord, You're My Healer”. God can heal you in any part of your life; it's not just physical healing. The guy who wrote that song, wrote it in the midst of being riddled with cancer, with death reports around his life, and he wrote: Lord, You're My Healer. That song was birthed out of deep conflict, where a person made a decision to come to God, and arise with faith. Do you think he cried? I'm sure he cried. Do you think he wept? Felt injustice? Felt rejected? I'm sure he felt all those things, but he decided to turn it in towards God, and creatively expressed his heart in a song.