It’s natural for Christians to assume that if things are going well, we must be doing well spiritually. But what if success can tell the truth about one part of your life while hiding the truth about another? What if everything can appear to be going right around you while something is going terribly wrong within you? When life begins falling apart, consequences have a way of getting our attention. Failure forces us to ask hard questions. But success can convince us that because one area of life is flourishing, everything inside us must be healthy. When people are concerned about us, we’re more likely to examine ourselves. We rarely examine ourselves when everyone is congratulating us. That’s what makes today’s passage unsettling. Everything in David’s life looks successful. But tucked inside all that success is an enemy David has not defeated an enemy growing within his own heart. So, what do the apparent blessings in David’s life actually prove? Does visible success mean God approves of everything happening within us? Can we be winning battles everyone else sees while losing a battle no one else knows we are fighting? This passage will show us why we need more than David’s strength, courage, or success. We need a better King.
