Abner 

Daily Devotional

Average reading time is about 3 minutes

“Now it was so, while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner was strengthening his hold on the house of Saul” (2 Samuel 3:6). 

Does waiting in long lines really irk you? Do you bite your nails or grind your teeth? Do you worry about the future and keep thinking about the worst possible outcome? Is relaxing hard work for you? Do you have a hard time being patient with those you consider incompetent? Do you feel naked without your to-do list? If any of this sounds like you, you may have a Type A personality.  

In the 1950s, cardiologist Meyer Friedman noticed that his patients with more heart trouble also tended to have higher levels of drive, impatience, and stress. Through his research and bestselling book, Type A Behavior and Your Heart, “Type A” became a household word describing someone with a competitive, ambitious, and aggressive predisposition. 

Abner was King Saul’s general. He was the most powerful, distinguished, and ambitious man in all of Israel. He was so powerful that when Saul died, Abner singlehandedly set Saul’s son Ishbosheth on the throne of Israel, and he ruled all of Israel except Judah, which David ruled. One day, Ishbosheth asked Abner why he had gone into his father Saul’s concubine. By this time, Abner had grown weary of Ishbosheth’s incompetence, and he flew into a rage, swearing that he would fulfill the Lord’s plan to transfer the entire kingdom to David. Ishbosheth “could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him” (2 Samuel 3:11). 

We know that Abner was well aware of God’s plan to make David king of all Israel. Yet he was more interested in his own plan—to gain honour for himself at any cost. And he was willing to subject God’s people to an extended civil war to achieve it. 

If you have a Type A personality, God can use you in a powerful way! The key is to value what God wants and to put all that drive and ambition into accomplishing His plan, not your own. 

Dear Father, cause me to value what You want more than what I want today. 

Daily Devotional Verses

For Further Study: 2 Samuel 3:6–11; Matthew 26:42; Luke 9:25

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