Today’s Reading, Psalms 26-31
Focal Scripture: Psalms 31:13-14 “I have heard the gossip of many; terror is on every side. When they conspired against me, they plotted to take my life. But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.””
I have a list of pet peeves in my life. The first one are people who smack their food while they eat. Second, is when people say or write revelations instead of Revelation. Then to round out my top three is gossip. Gossip is infuriating because it means you are talking about someone behind their back. It means you are making assumptions about a persons motives without knowing the truth. It also means you are trying to destroy the character of someone to fit an agenda. Gossip is a sin and must be dealt with because of the damage it causes.
In the verse today we see that gossip bothered David. He heard the rumors and what was being said. He heard the conversations about him and the assumptions that lead to by others. David was aware of the conspiracy of these gossips to create a narrative. They even planned to take his life. However, David found his hope in the Lord not in the power of gossips.
This is an important truth to learn in the life of a believer. It is one I have had to learn over the last year. Gossips are everywhere and they will do anything to create a narrative to keep the truth from being told. They will manipulate the truth to keep it from being exposed. This has personally happened to me and it was devastating to see happen. People would say things that were completely untrue and never approach me with their questions. People gossiped over why I stepped away from a ministry position where God was moving in to protect the truth from being heard about leadership.
What I learned from this experience is that gossips are everywhere but my trust must be in the Lord more than people. You must trust God to expose the truth and vindicate you when it is in his timing. You will be tempted to defend yourself and fight your own battles. You will be tempted to correct those who don’t tell the truth to others. However, our goal as believers is to trust the Lord when gossip comes to our door.
If you have experienced the pain of gossip I encourage you to give it to God. Pray for those who don’t know the truth to see the truth. Stay steadfast and don’t gossip about others to make yourself look better. It’s difficult to keep biblical convictions but talking about others is not biblical and not godly.
So when gossip comes to you shut it down and don’t allow it to spread. Don’t allow gossip to change your view of someone because gossips have an agenda. Then always remember this if someone will gossip to you about someone, they will gossip about you to everyone.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Psalms 32-35
