R-E-S-P-E-C-T

1 Samuel 24:1-11
Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.” 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3 So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.) 4 Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5 Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. 6 And he said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7 So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way. 8 David also arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed down. 9 And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? 10 Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ 11 Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it.
Have you ever known someone that you just despised? Someone that has hurt you? in fact, someone who made it their personal business to hurt you? This blog is for you.

Recently, I have been dealing with one of those types. The person just rubs me wrong. I cannot stand how this person deals with people, how the person walks, talks, or breathes around me. The person is a complete irritant to me. We all hear this statement "Respect has to be earned," but in God's kingdom does it? I want to challenge your thinking a bit, especially if you are dealing with a person like this. Trust has to be earned, but what is respect? How is it attributed? Do we attribute respect to someone in authority? Do we attribute it to someone we trust? I believe that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of what respect is. Most often, when we are talking about respect, it is always in the context of either a person has it or they will never earn it. If you look at David, of all people, he had a right to not respect Saul. Did he trust him? No, he hid from him because of the incidents with the spears. However, when David had a chance for revenge, despite everything human nature, our faulty sin-laden nature, was telling him, he did not kill Saul.

He didn't kill Saul. And if you look, he could have done it and gotten away with it, so we know that it was not out of fear of retaliation. David knew that God had appointed David as King, but Saul was the current king and David knew that until God removed Saul, he was king. That says something. I think going forward, we should begin respecting those that God has put in authority over us regardless of what they have or haven't done to earn it. My new definition of respect is "being able to get even with someone who deserves it and not doing it because of WHOSE they are." Selah

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