Our Part

1 Samuel 30:24

For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.

David and his men returned to Israel to find their families had been taken captive. They armed themselves for war and went to fight the battle to rescue their families. As they pursued, some of his troops lacked the strength to go any further. Instead of having these men go to the battle and likely losing their lives because of a lack of strength, David unloaded the unnecessary stuff that would slow them down in the battle, and let these men guard the stuff while the rest of the men pursued and fought the battle to bring the families back to them.

After their great victory, they brought the spoils that they won in the battle back to where their stuff was. However, the men who fought in the battle did not want the men who stayed by the stuff to have the spoils; they only wanted them to have their wives and children who were rescued. David made an important principle in his reign from this situation, and that was that both those who go to the battle and those who tarry by the stuff shall part the spoils together.

There are two actions represented in this story that show what it takes to win the spiritual battles that we fight. First, it takes people to fight the battle if they are to win the battle. Battles do not win themselves, but battles are won when people have the faith to fight them. If you are waiting for somebody else to fight your battles for you, you will always find yourself on the losing side.

Second, it takes an active prayer life to win the battles of life. Tarrying by the stuff is a representation of a prayer life. You can fight battles all day long for God, but if you don't have a prayer life, you will lose those battles. Your prayer life is as vital to winning the battle as your initiative to fight those battles. You can have all the talent in the world, but without a prayer life, that talent will only take you as far as the talent and no further. The greatest way to take your skills and talent beyond your skills and talent is by having an active prayer life. Prayer brings you beyond your skills and talents to do things that your skills and talents could never do.

My friend, the secret to a church doing something great for God is to have these two elements. A church that prays but does not work is a church that will do nothing for God. A church that works hard but does not pray is a church that will find failure. Too many believe that we need to be one or the other, but God wants both. God's people need to be actively serving in the church if we are to see our church have an impact on our city, but we cannot have an impact on our city with labor alone; it takes an active prayer life as well. When you look at the church in the book of Acts, you will see a church that not only actively labored, but they also had a passionate prayer life. It was their laborers and their prayer life working together that allowed them to turn the world upside down for Christ.

Let me ask you, do you find yourself lacking on the labor side? Do you find yourself lacking on the prayer side? Don't fall for the trap that you have to do one or the other; God wants us to do both. Give me a person who labors and prays simultaneously, and I will give you a person who, no matter what their talent level is, will see God do great things through their life.