2 SAMUEL 6:5-14 – “And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the LORD had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?”  So David was not willing to take the ark of the LORD into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household. And it was told King David, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.”

THEME OF THE DAY: OBEDIENCE AND BATTLING OUR EMOTIONS.  Emotions. What a wonderful gift they are from God, and how damaged they become because of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Take a moment and think about the wide range of emotions we exhibit.  There are a lot of them.  Let’s start with the bad ones – unjustified anger, anxiety, worry, irritability, hatred, indifference, impatience, bitterness, envy, lust, and the list goes on and on.  Do the same with the good emotions – affection, kindness, respect, patience, happiness, thoughtfulness, and we may add to this list as well.   By constructing these lists, what do we discover?  A raging emotional battle in our hearts.  And it is constant and intense.

In today’s scripture, we witness the man after God’s own heart, David, going through a very emotional roller coaster. He is fighting the raging war of emotions.  David starts with celebration before the Lord, then anger toward the Lord which turned into being afraid of the Lord. He ended up dancing before the Lord.  Talk about high and low experiences!  And while going through these intense emotions from really good to really bad, what did David do?  He obeyed God. He continued to serve God – “So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod” (2 Samuel 6:12-14).

The application from the example of David is that our obedience is not driven by our emotions.  Just the opposite. Obedience drives and overrides emotions.  Remember what David is experiencing emotionally.  Quite a flood – rejoicing, anger, fear, rejoicing again, and he didn’t let any keep him from obeying the Lord.  The same for us.  Let’s learn to control our emotions and that by consistently obeying the Lord despite our feelings and emotions with obedience that is consistent and done in the power of God’s grace.

PRAYER: Father, help me to not let my emotions prevent my obedience to You.

REFLECTION:  If we allow our emotions to control us, we will find our obedience to God’s command inconsistent.