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Enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Some aren’t violent—just loud. They curse, they criticise, they mutter from the sidelines, but that’s as far as it goes. Others keep their distance but carry a quiet resentment that occasionally surfaces. Some want to just use you or manipulate you. And of course, there are those rare but dangerous enemies who genuinely seek to harm you.

If you live long enough in this fallen world, you’ll encounter all of them. But that raises a very practical question for the Christian believer: How do you deal with an enemy? How do you respond when someone has set themselves against you?

One of Scripture’s clearest case studies is David, when he found himself persecuted and under great pressure. The way David responds provides us with a deeply challenging, yet deeply instructive picture of how God’s people are to face opposition.

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Some women carry the hidden burden of being married to men who are, spiritually speaking, breathtakingly foolish. I don’t mean foolish in the modern sense of low intelligence or lack of education. A man can have degrees up the wall, a sharp mind, a successful career… and yet be spiritually blind.

Scripture calls that man a fool—not because he isn’t intelligent, but because he refuses to think in the ways of God. But to be fair, that condition isn’t confined to men; plenty of women fit the same description.

But in 1 Samuel 25, we meet a particular couple who embody this contrast so vividly that the Holy Spirit preserved their story, I believe, for our instruction.

Yet this story is not preserved simply as an ancient marital case study. You do not need to approach it from a position of gender to learn from it.

So, let's reflect and allow God to use this narrative to cultivate wisdom in us. Because if you don’t pursue wisdom… You will drift into folly. But if you would like to be wise? Then listen to the Spirit’s voice in this chapter….

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What do you do when you feel like getting even?

How far should retaliation go?

Should it happen at all? And what does God call His people to do when the desire for payback burns inside us?

Well, as it happens, as we journey through 1 Samuel, we come to a chapter where this question is placed front and centre. So, let’s turn together to 1 Samuel 24, where David—the man after God’s own heart—is forced to decide whether revenge is ever the right path….

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Trouble.

It’s one of the few things every human being has in common. When does it start? Some parents might say around age two. When does it end? Well… probably when you draw your final breath. Job said it well: “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Later, he added, “Man… is of few days and full of trouble.”

So, if you’re breathing today, you probably know exactly what he means.

So, here’s the question that matters: What do you actually do when you’re in the middle of it? Not before the trouble, not after the trouble—in it. When your heart is aching, when your mind is spinning, when options feel few and your strength is failing… what then?

The Bible gives us answers, and today we’re going to focus on one story that can help us find one of those answers—it’s about a moment in David’s life when he was surrounded by trouble on every side, and yet somehow he still found the clarity to do what was right.

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Sin always has consequences. Scripture teaches that plainly. It affects the sinner directly, of course, but it rarely stops there. Sin has a way of reaching outward—touching, wounding, distorting the lives of others, sometimes in ways the sinner never intended and never imagined. One of the more sobering realities of life in a fallen world is that sin is never a purely private affair. It leaks. It seeps. It spreads. And sometimes the consequences fall most heavily on those who did nothing to deserve it.

So, the question I want us to explore in this episode is simple but important: What is the ultimate consequence of sin?

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People like to sort life into neat, tidy categories. And Christians are no exception, we often like to sort life into straightforward ways of approaching things, tidy categories: right and wrong, black and white, faithful or unfaithful. Maybe we assume too easily that if someone trusts the Lord, they will always walk in integrity. Surely a believer who lies must not be trusting God in that moment… right?

But what if I told you that a man of sincere faith — a man who deeply loved God, a man the Scriptures themselves describe as having a heart after the Lord — once found himself in a place of great fear, and in that moment… he lied. Boldly. Blatantly. No nuance, no half-truths — a proper, old-fashioned whopper of a lie.

The man I’m talking about is David. The story we are about to enter, recorded in 1 Samuel 21, is the beginning of that long, exhausting, ten-year season where David lived on the run. sheltering in caves, hiding in the shadows, and in these moments when fear pressed in— some of the deepest spiritual lessons emerge…..

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Friends can be fickle. You’ve probably heard someone say, “When you get into trouble, you find out who your real friends are.” Many of us have lived long enough to know just how true that is.

But, what is a true friend? What does genuine, God-honouring friendship look like?

One of the greatest pictures of true friendship in all of Scripture—and indeed in all of ancient literature—is tucked away in 1 Samuel. It’s the story of Jonathan, the son of King Saul, and his relationship with David. Some have called it the finest illustration of loyal friendship ever written.

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When we read the Scriptures with any seriousness, we quickly discover that God not only has a purpose—He also has methods. His purposes never fail, but His methods often surprise us.

Sometimes He works through miracles, sometimes through providence, sometimes through judgment, sometimes through mercy. Yet if you watch the biblical story unfold long enough, you see one particular throughline that appears again and again: In that, God accomplishes His purposes through people—ordinary, flawed, faithful people.

1 Samuel 19 gives us one of the clearest pictures of that truth. In this chapter, we watch God preserve David—the man He has chosen as Israel’s next king through relationships, loyalties, conversations, and timely interventions. God weaves His sovereign purpose through very many and varied threads, but all intensely human.

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