2 Samuel 5:23-24 -- On Guidance from the Lord

"And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the Lord go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines."
2 Samuel 5:23-24


Earlier in this chapter, David asks the Lord if he should go up against the Philistines, and the Lord says yes. This time he told him not to go immediately, but to wait. It's cool to me that David waited, and followed God's instructions.

I think sometimes we get caught in a pattern, expecting answers to our prayers to be what we have heard before, or what we expect, and overwhelmingly what we want... but all of those expectations can interfere with hearing the Lord. Too often, we're listening for what we want to hear rather than what the Lord actually has to say.

Today, let's be open to the answers that the Lord is giving us, rather than just what we want to hear. Sometimes it's time to wait by the mulberry trees, and that's okay. If we wait on the timing of the Lord rather than our own, less-perfect timing, then we'll have his support in the challenges of life.