Obedience or Pride?

2 Samuel 13:21-22  New International Version (NIV)

21 When King David heard all this, he was furious. 22 And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad; he hated Amnon because he had disgraced his sister Tamar.


    So, this little guy named David picks up a few rocks and kills a giant with only a slingshot.  Then he goes on to kill tens of thousands of soldiers.  This little guy must have done an awesome job watching his father's sheep, because for some reason he was made king.  In the early stories of David, he seems so humble and confident in God's love for him.  To kill a lion and a bear takes some confidence.  But it doesn't take long to see some weakness.
     I have to wonder if we become so accustomed to hearing God's voice, that we stop listening as attentively as we once did?  Or maybe our own will sneaks in there without us realizing it.  Maybe the confidence shifts to pride.  As in David's case, maybe it was being ruler over so many and having that constant favor poured on him by the Lord, that he began to take things that did not belong to him.  Bathsheba for instance?  Huh?  He didn't even see it when the Lord sent Nathan to straighten him out.  I know the Lord has used many little bible stories to take me to my knees.
     The part of the whole King David story that makes me sick to my stomach is the rape of Tamar.  This great king who had killed a giant and many, many other soldiers, did nothing about the rape of his own daughter.  I understand it was his own son who did it and there he was caught between two of his children, but really?  Was he afraid?  Did he not value his daughter?  The bible doesn't tell us every detail of what took place between David and Tamar or even between Amnon and Absalom, but by the hatred that grows in Absalom toward king David, I would guess, the normal dysfunctional ignoring of the problem. 
     Looking at this story I see that there are areas in my life I attack with no fear.  I have complete faith that all will work out.  There are other areas and/or people that I cannot muster up the strength to confront.  I think sometimes we use grace as an excuse.  There are times when we need to say things to others and the Lord is calling us to, but we use verses like, If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.  It's funny how the meaning of a verse can be adjusted to where I am. 
     Sometimes God calls us out into war and other times He calls us to a cave to hide.  One thing I have learned lately is that when He calls and I do the opposite, I am sinning.  Seriously, to face a friend with a warning from God is not a warm and fuzzy.  I would much rather bless them with a word of encouragement.  I am not afraid of spiritual warfare.  Let me know if you are fighting a demonic spirit and I can get a team together to help you take care of that, but face a friend who has their eyes covered by the hand of the enemy and I get a little sick to my stomach.  I am working on this though.  The Lord has asked me several times lately, what is more important, their freedom or their friendship?  He is teaching me. 
     To not obey is to believe we know better than God.
 

“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. […] There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves.[…]The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity