I recently had lunch with a former classmate of mine whom I will call Alexa. Alexa told me how that she started working professionally before graduation. Starting out as an intern and working her way up to where she is now. She talked about how she met her husband and how God has bestowed them with blessing after blessing. It was so refreshing to hear God move in their lives. I rejoiced with Alexa. Yet, I could not help but think how God has been to me too. You see, this success was expected for Alexa. She was the perfect student back at school, grade-wise and disposition-wise, and I was not. She was the one that was predicted by all and sundry to take on the world and succeed big time, not me. She had all the opportunities I could only dream about. I on the other hand had challenges upon challenges, obstacles upon obstacles. I had to pay my school fees myself. I was supporting a family as a student. I had no one to turn to for support at the time. Yet God took me and made me victorious. God enabled big leaps in my life that enabled me come out ahead of my peers.

David was the Shepard while his brother’s were the Soldiers. He was born 8th out of 8 children so the odds were not in his favor. You can say he was dealt a bad hand and you wouldn’t be far off. In a culture as that in which David grew up, the first born child was preeminent. There may have been mention of the second and third born child, but the eighth? Forget about it. To add injury to insult, David was not initially called up when Samuel came to anoint a King amongst his father’s son’s. David was not deemed important enough to serve his Country at war.  Oh I imagine, David had the smallest ration of food and was not called to the family table when important decisions were made. Through it all, David was faithful in the little he was entrusted with. He faced obstacle upon obstacle, yet he was faithful. David eventually came out ahead by leaps and bound, not just ahead of his brothers but ahead of every one else in Israel. He was the chosen of God, the beloved of God – the King of Israel.

You will come out ahead! The cards that were dealt you may have been bad, treacherous even – but if you faithfully get your work done, you will come out ahead. David said:

What have I done now? Is there not a cause – 1 Samuel 17:29

Surely there is a cause, there is a reason why everything happened the way it happened. There is a reason for your pain and suffering. There is a reason why you had to go through all you had to go through. A reason no one believed in you. If you grind out a complete from a near impossible, you will find yourself ahead sooner or later. If you stay occupied each hour of the working day, yours will be the earth. If you seek first the Kingdom and all of its righteousness, yours will be the Kingdom and better still, you will come out ahead.