Have you ever been in a situation where you really lost it all? The enemy of our souls is a thief, and he will do anything he can to take what matters to us and break our hearts. Sometimes he comes with a really powerful strike that we feel we may never recover from. If you’ve been in that place before or you’re in it right now, I want to tell you that you are not alone. The Bible tells us that even David, the man after God’s heart, suffered devastating loss.

While he was on the run from King Saul, David and the men who were loyal to him were staying in a city called Ziklag, so when they went off to other places, their wives and children and everything they owned would stay there. Well one day, the men came home to Ziklag, and they found the worst possible thing had happened while they were gone:

“Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.”

— 1 Samuel 30:1-3

How horrible would that be — to lose absolutely everything that you’ve ever gained in your life, everything you’ve worked for, everything that you love? You come home and find that all of it has just been burned down or taken away. It’s difficult for most of us to even wrap our minds around such a tragedy, and the Bible tells us, “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep” (1 Samuel 30:4).

They were all so distressed and crushed by this loss, and David’s men were so hurt that they were even thinking about stoning him! Can you imagine how David must have been feeling, to have his life threatened while he was in the midst of grieving for everything they had lost? I truly believe that this was one of the darkest times in David’s life, friend, but the reason I wanted to tell you this story is because, in the middle of it all, David trusted God. Even though everything seemed lost and it looked like David’s life was about to be over, the very end of verse 6 tells us something so powerful: “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6).

Now friend, I don’t know how David strengthened himself in the Lord, but I know that many times we can encourage ourselves in the Lord by remembering what He has done in the past.  Maybe David pictured Goliath laying on the ground. Maybe he was thinking of a time when he’d grabbed a hold of a lion or bear and killed it. Maybe he was thinking of all the years that the Lord was providing for him and protecting his life as he was running from Saul. Maybe David remembered “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

Friend, when something tragic happens, we don’t want to rush in and start praying fearful prayers. Our God is merciful, and He can pull us through the situation no matter what emotions we have, but if we really want effective prayers, we can’t let ourselves stay caught up in the emotion. Just like David, we have to take the first step of strengthening ourselves in the Lord.

The next step is to actually come to Him in prayer. We read in 1 Samuel 30:8, “So David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?’”

Friend, what I’m sharing with you is the process of recovering everything that’s been lost: David found himself in this place of overwhelming despair, so he strengthened himself in the Lord, and then he asked Him, “God, what should I do?” He got into an honest position and asked the Lord exactly what he wanted to know.

Sometimes we say, “Okay, Lord, I’m going to pray about this horrible situation,” but we don’t even recognize that we’re just praying empty, religious prayers. We have to be honest, friend, because that’s the only way we can invite God into our real struggles. What really positions us to recover everything that we’ve lost is having full faith in God, and for that, we have to be believing in Him for the full situation.

David didn’t know what would happen, so he asked God, “Lord, Will I be able to do anything about this? Should I pursue the enemy? Will I be able to catch them? Will we be able to get back our wives and children and everything we’ve lost?” This could have been a really hard conversation, because it was possible the Lord would say “No,” but because David positioned himself to seek the Lord in that difficult moment, he received God’s answer, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all” (1 Samuel 30:8).

That is beautiful. Because of his trust, David received a promise, he received comfort, and he received direction — everything that he’d been looking for from God. What faith it took for David to even ask the question, but when you do ask God honestly and you open your heart to His possibilities and power, you open your heart to receive answers and direction.

Then all that’s left for you to do is to act on the directions God has given you. Right after he received the Lord’s answer, the Bible says, “So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him” (1 Samuel 30:9). 

They pursued the Amalekites who took everything from them, and God provided so that they would be able to catch them. As they were pursuing, they found an Egyptian servant who had been left behind by his Amalekite master because he was sick. They gave him something to eat and drink, and he told them that he’d lead them right to the enemy they were chasing!

Friend, this was a part of God’s answer. Our God can cause all these little things to fall into place in just the right way so that we can get where we need to go, and that’s what he did by putting this young man in David’s path. They were brought right to the camp of the enemy, and when they attacked, only 400 men were able to get away on camels — all the rest were totally defeated by David’s army!

This was such a joyous moment, friend! Look at what 1 Samuel 30:18-19 says: “So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.”

He recovered all! Everything David had was taken from him, but he got it all back because he put himself in a position to hear from God and to receive His power. He didn’t get there because he was logical and emotionless — he had lots of emotion. He cried so much that he couldn’t cry anymore. But in the middle of that grief, he strengthened himself in the Lord, and he prayed honestly to Him. Then when the Lord answered him, David obeyed quickly, and it opened him up to find the servant boy, who was the key to tracking down their enemies and taking back everything that was stolen.

Friend, there was a process David had to follow. He didn’t just charge in to get it back or give up because all was lost. He carefully took the steps that would get him to his goal. When you feel like you’ve lost it all and there’s no way you could recover it, you have to remember that. Instead of letting doubt flood your mind, strengthen yourself in the Lord and ask Him, “Lord, should I go in there? Should I believe You? Should I believe that I can recover all?” Then listen for His answer, and be ready to jump up and follow His direction!

The next time you find yourself robbed by the enemy or by the world, make sure you choose the right response. Don’t just say, “Oh Lord, this is an awful situation. I guess I’m just going to lose this. I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this.” If you view it like that, then of course you won’t recover anything! Instead you have to say, “You already know my situation, Lord. You’ve been faithful and powerful in the past, and I’m asking You now, should I try to recover all here? Could I do it? Will You stand with me?” Just by taking that step of strengthening yourself in Him and seeking Him for answers, you are putting yourself on the path to recover all. It might not happen all at once like it did for David. Maybe you’ll recover everything a few steps at a time. Maybe you’ll recover something at one time and something else at another. Maybe it won’t happen in the way or form you expect. The important thing is that you keep trusting the process and listening to the truth — then His power will be free to move and restore.