I Forgot Who I Was--I Am A Weapon

So yall....I started my new job this Monday


Yesssss....it's so exciting. I mean the job isn't really that exciting, but I'm just glad to be out of hotels. I'm not gonna lie. I was scaaaaaaaaarrrrrreeeeeddd. Literally, Sunday night, I was borderline anxiety attack thinking about what this job was going to be like. I was driving myself crazy thinking about what if I wasn't able to do the job or what if I messed up. Chile, sending myself into a whole frenzy over nothing. So Monday morning before I left, I talked to my aunt, and I thought I was okay, but then I went into the office. I looked at the other 5 new hires and I noticed a big difference--I was the youngest, the shortest, and the only Black girl.  When I say I was the youngest, I mean I looked significantly younger. Some of them had retired and were coming back to work in the same position I was in. Some of them appeared to be more established than I am, and so intimidation took over. When I finally got to know a little more about them, I realized I was a bigger threat to them than they were to me. 

Intimidation is something serious. The kingdom is all good and dandy until something bigger, badder, and better comes along, and then they're as quiet as a church mouse. No, baby! Keep that same energy. The Bible says no weapon formed against you shall prosper. It doesn't mean that the weapon doesn't form, and it doesn't give a limitation on what the weapon will look like. But you've got this. 

1 Samuel 25:1-13 The Message (MSG)

To Fight God’s Battles

25 Samuel died. The whole country came to his funeral. Everyone grieved over his death, and he was buried in his hometown of Ramah. Meanwhile, David moved again, this time to the wilderness of Maon.

2-3 There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man’s name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean.

4-8 David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: “Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it’s sheep-shearing time. Here’s the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn’t take advantage of them. They didn’t lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they’ll tell you. What I’m asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.’”

9-11 David’s young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I’m going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I’ve never laid eyes on? Who knows where they’ve come from?”

12-13 David’s men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, “Strap on your swords!” They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp.

There's a lot going on in this text. Had I not read the NLT and The Message versions, I probably wouldn't have a clue what was going on. It's a whole situation

So far, Samuel has died, and all of Israel has gathered for his funeral. It's a hard hit, but I believe it's personal for David. Samuel is the one that anointed David as king back in 1 Samuel 16. Samuel gave David his notoriety. He validated him. 

But the thing about David being validated is, it never allowed him to be delivered from intimidation and needing to be acknowledge, but that's another story for another day. Moral of the story, David always does things out of the need to be validated. When that's threatened, he starts acting up. It is what it is. 

So now, we have Nabal. I really had the urge to call him Donald Trump...probably because his name means fool, but that's neither here nor there. He has all this stuff, right. I think it was something like 3000 sheep and like 1000 goats. I just wonder how much land do you have to accommodate all of that. There's no way he would've been able to keep up with all of that. Anything could've happened, but David protected  them. Of course, that's only natural for him since he was a shepherd. But honestly and truly, Nabal aint care about none of that stuff David was talking about. To a certain extent, I get where Nabal is coming from. He never asked David to do any of the things he did so he really doesn't owe David anything. If he decided to give David something out of gratitude and appreciation, that's one thing, but for David to come with his hand out? Nah. 

David completely ignored the fact that technically speaking, he was king. Well at least that is what I am assuming. Samuel anointed him to be king after him since Saul was rejected by God. Regardless of if he was actually king or not, David let his entitlement issues override his reality. That's crazy. 

1 Samuel 25:14-22 The Message (MSG)

14-17 Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, what had happened: “David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn’t take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He’s impossible—a real brute!”

18-19 Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys. Then she said to her young servants, “Go ahead and pave the way for me. I’m right behind you.” But she said nothing to her husband Nabal.

20-22 As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, “That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren’t dead meat by morning!”

Here we go with Mrs. Abigail. Now, typically, the man is the head of the household. I think Nabal is, but Abigail said, "Okay, but I'm the neck. Try me not." Abigail had every reason to be afraid, intimidated, whatever you want to call it. David killed a giant. I'm going to be honest, when I think of someone named Abigail, I imagine a tiny, petite, dainty woman. I don't imagine someone like


But Abigail had a secret weapon--wisdom. 

Proverbs 2:6-11 New Living Translation (NLT)

6 For the Lord grants wisdom!
    From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
    He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
8 He guards the paths of the just
    and protects those who are faithful to him.

9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair,
    and you will find the right way to go.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11 Wise choices will watch over you.
    Understanding will keep you safe.

Let's just talk about this for a moment. Abigail has wisdom. She knows how to dissolve the situation. She understood who David was and what upsetting him could do. She also understand that they would be in debt to David. Abigail has the wisdom that Nabal lacked. That's where the real relationship goals come in. I was reading up on this story and some people commented that Abigail and Nabal were in an unequally yoked marriage. I beg to differ. I believe they balance each other out. You never want to see 2 aggressive people together or 2 passive people together. It's too much. But when 1 is 1 way and the other is the opposite, it balances out. I don't want me and my husband to be the best at the same things. I need him to balance me out. I need to know that when I pop off, he can calm me down. I need to know that my areas of weakness are his strengths. You're supposed to balance each other out. 

That balance is called favor. The Bible says a man that finds a wife finds a good thing and receives favor. So really...Abigail has 2 secret weapons--wisdom and favor. 

Psalm 5:12 New International Version (NIV)

12 Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous;
    you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

Now because Abigail showed up God's favor on her life showed up too. Do you know that things go different just because you showed up? I'm not talking about just in your relationships. When I was working in hotels, one of my biggest fears was someone would come through the front door and start shooting. I would pray every single day that nothing would. Of course, there were chaotic days, but every single day my prayers would be answers. I was a weapon. You're a weapon against the enemy. The enemy don't even want to try to form a weapon because you're there.