Courage: Where Are Those Who Will Stand Up And Do What Must Be Done?

Story of David:

http://biblehub.com/library/marshall/the_wonder_book_of_bible_stories/the_story_of_david_the.htm

As children, we were taught one of the greatest stories and lessons from the Holy Bible. 1 Samuel, verse 17.  It is the story of King David.  But before he became King over Israel, David was a little shepherd boy.  As a shepherd boy, one must protect the sheep.  They are vulnerable to many predators.  If their lives are threatened, the shepherd oftentimes must risk his to protect the herd. His first act of bravery was to kill a lion.  Then he killed a bear.  David was just a teenager.  But he was special.  God noticed him very young.  It is one of my favorite stories.

Elohim referred to him as “a man after his own heart.”  Why did God love David so? What qualified David? Who by all accounts, was quite the scoundrel, but God loved him.  What was it that God saw in David that impressed him so? Because…David heart was completely pointed toward God.  He had absolute faith in God.  When David went up against Goliath, he had complete confidence that God would deliver him from danger.  David knew early on that God was to be trusted and obeyed.  This pleased God and he was rewarded for it.

Second, David absolutely loved God’s laws. Third, David always gave thanks to God. No matter what he was going through in his life .  It was one of the finest characteristics within him.  We all remember the part of the story where David was worshiping and praising God so much, his clothes came off.

Third, David was truly repentant.  We all know this part of the story: “It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant’” (2 Samuel 11:2-5). The mighty fall hard, and David’s fall included adultery, lying and murder. He had sinned against God and he admits it in 2 Samuel 12:13: “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.’”  We should all follow David’s example and acknowledge when we’re wrong.

In conclusion, David demonstrated his faith in God on a daily basis.

So, what does this have to do with Black people?  Everything.  We too are the love of God’s heart , yet, we have fallen. Like David, we have had our courageous ones who’ve fought many battles: slavery, abolition, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, racial violence, et al.  We too have had many victories but we also have had to face the enemy under trying times for our people. However, we have never strayed away from God.

In these trying times, we must not forget who are parents and grandparents prayed to. They trusted in God through everything, and so must we.

We are not weak and we most certainly must act courageously in whatever situations that we face.

God first breathed his spirit into a Black man–his first creation.  We are a reflection of him and must never forget that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

For we truly our a people after God’s own heart.