2 Samuel 9:3-8 (NIV)
3 The king asked, "Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?" Ziba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan, he is crippled in both feet." 4 "Where is he?" the king asked. Ziba answered, "He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar." 5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel. 6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, "Mephibosheth!" "Your servant," he replied. 7 "Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table." 8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?"

Now you can imagine Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, living down there in Lo Debar with nothing and just barely scraping through on a daily basis and he didn't know that he had a covenant with King David through his father. He didn't know all that he had. Lo Debar means a desert place, like a dung heap where people just survived.

When David said, "Send for him and bring him to me", and when Mephibosheth came, he said to David, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me"? That's low, poor self esteem isn't it?

Isn't it amazing that we too can be like Mephibosheth? Many of us have a covenant with God and we're living in Lo Debar because we don't know what that covenant is. We're barely making it through. We have this picture of ourselves as a dead dog. "Why would God help me? I know about me. I deserve to die". But yet just like David, Jesus said, "I've got a covenant with you. Everything I have is yours, everything you have is Mine. I gave you beauty for your ashes. I gave you the oil of joy for your sadness, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I gave you My righteousness for your sin. I gave you My health for your sickness. I gave you My peace for your turmoil. I gave you My acceptance with God for your rejection from God.
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