HOW TO BEHAVE IN A CAVE A LOOK AT GODLY DECISION MAKING

2 PRACTICAL THINKING REGARDING OUR FAITH

3 REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

4 DAVID DID NOT ALLOW CIRCUMSTANCE TO BECOME HIS GUIDE DAVID MAINTAINED A TENDER CONSCIENCE DAVID’S DECISIONS REFLECTED AN EXTREME RESPECT FOR GOD DAVID REMOVED SELF FROM THE EQUATION

5 TENSION BETWEEN THEM WAS THE RESULT OF SAUL’S SINFULNESS DAVID SUFFERED YEARS OF ABUSE AT THE HANDS OF SAUL WOULD YOU FEEL THESE CIRCUMSTANCES WOULD JUSTIFY DAVID LASHING OUT? CIRCUMSTANCES CANNOT DETERMINE ACTIONS

6 PERHAPS THE INTENT WAS TO SUGGEST THIS WAS PROVIDENTIAL “BEHOLD THIS IS THE DAY OF WHICH THE LORD SAID TO YOU…” WE MUST NOT ALLOW OUR DESIRES TO ALTER THE SCRIPTURES CIRCUMSTANCES CANNOT DETERMINE ACTIONS

7 We must be suspicious of our own judgments when a “new truth” or “new understanding” seems to authorize a thing which seems needful in the moment to justify our own desires

8 Those temptations are most powerful which fetch their force from the pretense of a religious obedience.

9 SUCH PRESSURE IS NOT LIMITED TO THE YOUNG BUT EXISTS THROUGHOUT LIFE DAVID’S MEN MAY NOT HAVE SHARED HIS CHARACTER CIRCUMSTANCES CANNOT DETERMINE ACTIONS

10 We must not yield even to our dearest and best friends when they desire from us something wrong

11 WE MUST ACTIVELY PROTECT OUR CONSCIENCE AGAINST EXPOSURE DAVID MAINTAINED A TENDER CONSCIENCE DESPITE HIS HORRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCE THIS PROTECTION IS FOUND BY THE CONSTANT MEDITATION ON THE WORD WE MUST PROTECT OUR CONSCIENCE

12 15 I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways. 16 I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word. Psalm 119:15–16 (NASB95)

13 THIS RESPECT DICTATES OUR DECISIONS IN EVEN OUR MOST INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS DAVID’S CONSCIENCE WAS BOTHERED BECAUSE SAUL WAS THE LORD’S ANOINTED WE MUST DEVLOP A RESPECT FOR GOD

14 HE TRUSTED IN THE LORD DAVID MAINTAINED THE PROPER PERSPECTIVE WE MUST REMOVE SELF THE ABILITY TO MAINTAIN A GODLY PERSPECTIVE IS KEY TO MAKING GODLY DECISION IN EVERY SITUATION