Reading: Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. 1 Samuel 16:13

God did not set David on the throne immediately after he was anointed as king. The interim period was loaded with testing, suffering, and humiliation.  He was hated, persecuted, outlawed, and hunted like a partridge on the mountains. David’s greater Son and Lord also endured unspeakable woe between the time the Holy Spirit first came upon Him and His exaltation at the right hand of the Majesty on High.  After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him at His baptism, Christ was tempted of the devil forty days.

The prophet said, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:27). It is in us to want to rush ahead, to reach the end without enduring the journey, to rest at the top without starting at the bottom and undertaking the discipline of climbing. The fact is that the journey to greatness is essential training and preparation. The principle that is illustrated here in the life of David is one that we must take to heart; patience has to be tested, humility manifested, and faith strengthened before we are ready to enter into God’s best for us.

Christ endured His temptation in the power of the Spirit. It will be that same Spirit of Christ that will see us through the testing.  If we can look upon testing as the very means that God uses for our purification and preparation, we will be able, like Paul, to patiently endure and even rejoice in testing (Romans 5:3).

O, rejoice in the LORD,
He makes no mistake;
He knoweth the end of each path that I take.
For when I am tried
And purified,
I shall come forth as gold.

—Ron Hamilton