1 Samuel 23:16 — “And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.”
David was in the wilderness.
Not metaphorically. Literally. Hiding in the desert. Running from a king who wanted him dead. In the middle of a season that looked nothing like the promise God had spoken over his life.
And Jonathan found him.
Not because it was convenient. Not because it was safe. Not because it made sense in the grand scheme of things for the heir to the throne to risk everything for the man who would one day take his place.
Jonathan found David because that’s what covenant does.
Covenant finds you in the wilderness.
It doesn’t wait for you to have it all together. It doesn’t wait for the season to improve, the circumstances to stabilize, or the version of you that’s struggling to magically transform into the version of you that’s thriving.
Covenant meets you right where you are.
And it helps you find strength in God.
Not strength in the plan. Not strength in the strategy. Not strength in the next move or the next opportunity or the next thing that might finally turn the tide.
Strength in God.
Because the wilderness doesn’t confuse Him. The waiting doesn’t frustrate Him. The weight you’re carrying doesn’t overwhelm Him.
That is what the right person in your life does.
He doesn’t just show up. He doesn’t just stand there. He points you back to the One who holds the whole story, the One who knows the way out of the wilderness even when you can’t see it.
He strengthens your hand in God.
If you have someone in your life who does that—who shows up in the wilderness, who stays when it costs something, who reminds you of God’s faithfulness when you can’t see it for yourself—
You have been given something rare.
Something David mourned for the rest of his life when it was gone.
Something worth receiving with open hands.
Something worth acknowledging.
Something worth protecting.
A Prayer for Today
Father,
I confess that I have learned to carry the weight alone. That I have mistaken self-sufficiency for strength and kept people at arm’s length, afraid to let them see what I’m really carrying.
Open my eyes to the people You have placed in my life who are offering me what I’ve been too guarded to receive.
Give me the courage to let them in.
Give me the grace to see what their presence costs them and to honor what it means to me.
And for the man in my life who keeps showing up—who finds me in the wilderness and helps me find strength in You—let me be to him what he has been to me.
A brother. A covenant. A presence that does not leave when it costs something.
Amen.
☕✝️🔥 You were not designed to carry it alone. And the man God sent to help you carry it? He’s already there. Let him stay.