Dear Church Family,

We are in the homestretch of the completion of our new preschool wing. Would you consider a financial gift to complete the project? We are only $297,000 from having it completely paid for! Please pray and be obedient to what God says. You all are so generous and I never want us to take that for granted. God is so good!

I found this devotional and thought it might encourage you:

Abigail saved her entire household with one conversation. Her husband Nabal was about to get them all killed. David was coming with 400 armed men. Blood was about to be spilled. Then Abigail did something that changed everything. Please read about her in 1 Samuel 25. Nabal was a fool. His name literally means “fool.” He was wealthy, powerful, respected in the community. He was also an ungodly man who despised those who served the Lord.

When David’s men asked for provision, after protecting Nabal’s flocks for months, Nabal insulted them. “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.”

Big mistake. David strapped on his sword. “Every man gird on his sword.” 400 men. One mission. Wipe out Nabal and every male in his household. This is where most people would panic. This is where most people would beg their husband to fix what he broke. This is where most people would resign themselves to death and hope for the best. Abigail did none of these things. “And Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.”

She gathered a feast. She took the gifts David’s men deserved. She acted like a leader while her husband acted like a fool. But here’s what’s brilliant: She didn’t just bring food. She brought wisdom. When she met David, she didn’t make excuses for Nabal. She didn’t defend him. She didn’t minimize what he’d done.

“Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.” She called her own husband a fool. To his face would come later. To David, she spoke truth.

Then she said something that stopped David in his tracks:

“And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel; That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself.”

Translation: “David, you’re going to be king. God has promised it. When you’re sitting on the throne, do you want to remember the day you murdered innocent people because you were angry? Do you want that blood on your hands when you’re ruling Israel?” She reminded him of his destiny when his emotions were driving him toward destruction.

David’s response: “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.”

One conversation. 400 lives saved. A future king redirected. A household delivered.

But here’s what most people miss: Abigail had studied David. She knew he was God’s anointed. She knew the promises over his life. She knew his character well enough to appeal to his conscience instead of his anger. She didn’t accidentally save everyone. She strategically saved everyone.

Most of us don’t know how to speak wisdom in crisis moments. We panic instead of praying. We react instead of responding with Scripture. We hope instead of acting on what God has already revealed.

Abigail knew God’s word well enough to use it as a weapon against foolishness.

Here’s the question that should haunt every Christian reading this: When crisis hits your family, will you have Abigail’s wisdom or Nabal’s foolishness? Praying for wisdom!

Press on,

Mark