The Palace of Blessedness
by Festo Kivengere

Have you sometimes felt, "I can't make it. Becoming a Christian is too high for me. I am too feeble, with my history of repeated failures. I am told to do impossible things, such as to clothe myself with compassion and kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, but not how to do it"?

Well, the deep secret of how to do it is buried in an Old Testament story found in 1 Samuel 18. It is the story of King Saul, of when he invited a young herdsman from Bethlehem to come and live in the palace and to minister there.

King Saul had a son named Jonathan who was the Prince Royal. ''When he (David) had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." Remember, this was in a palace. Jonathan was a prince and David was just a shepherd. David was not yet a trained soldier, although he had overcome a Philistine because the Spirit of the Lord was on him.

Outwardly, this young man could not have been more ordinary. When the king asked Abner, "Whose son is that?" the captain answered, "Your majesty, I simply don't know his parents."

Unknown, insignificant, David was just like you and me, as it were, from nowhere. God takes insignificant people, mere sinners from the road of life to introduce us into the wonderful palace of blessedness.

And did you notice that from the very beginning the king's son, the prince, loved the peasant? Jonathan loved David as his own soul. David entered the palace with the love of the Prince. That's how we enter God's blessedness - on the love of the Prince of Glory. Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us - that is our entrance.