Praise the Lord for the gift of this new day!
The Lord blessed us with a wonderful and joyful gathering for our mid-week service last evening. We have started a summer children's ministry that meets simultaneously with the grown ups that meet for fellowship and study. Praise the Lord for the way we can live under His authority and serve Him as our Lord and Savior.
As we live our lives on earth we discover very quickly that this life is not a play- ground, but rather it is a battleground. The Good News that we have is that the battle belongs to the Lord. We all love the story of young David the giant Goliath as it is recorded in 1 Samuel 17.
We all have been to the place where we have found it necessary to deal with giants. We have faced such giants as worry, doubt, fear, anxiety, depression, or insecurity. No matter which giants we have faced, we have wandered through dry valleys looking for answers, and sometimes we have come up empty. This leaves us feeling a lot like David as he stood in the intimidating shadow of Goliath. David physically faced the giant Goliath, but we face giants of our own all the time, whether they are mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual in nature. David lived by a simple principle to defeat the giants in his life. HE HAD NOTHING TO PROVE AND NOTHING TO LOSE.
David realized that everything that he was and everything that he had belonged completely to God. Even as he stood on the battlefield, he was there under the authority and direction of God. He did not go there to impress Saul or Goliath, his brothers, or his friends. His purpose was not to prove anything to any of Saul’s soldiers who were probably bigger and stronger than he was. So, why was he there? David was there fighting that battle because someone was standing there disgracing the Living God. Only David was ready to stand against that. He had nothing to prove and nothing to lose.
The Israelites and Philistines had met in the Valley of Elah to wage battle. The Israelites were on one side of the valley and the Philistines on the other, and each had a battle line. If one side wanted to relay a message to the enemy or taunt them without having to attack them, they would send a soldier to the battle line to do that. Everyday for 40 days, a Philistine named Goliath would step out of his ranks, go to the battle line, and he would talk trash to Israel. Saul and his soldiers were terrified. For 40 days, twice a day, Goliath would put on a show, and Saul and his men, according to verses 23-24, ran away in fear. The way Saul approached this giant was entirely different from the way David would approach him.
There appears to be a sharp contrast in the prevailing attitudes about how to battle a giant. Notice that Saul kept putting it off, and the longer he delayed, the more intimidated he became. The more intimidated the Israelites became, the harder the problem became for them to handle. It’s the same when we battle our giants. We wake up every morning and walk to the battle line. We look across the valley and see the intimidating problem standing there. Day after day, the more we delay in battling the giant, the more intimidating the problem becomes, and the harder it is to handle later. David, however, showed up, surveyed the situation, saw a black-spot, and did some immediate housecleaning. By the next morning, the Israelites would not have that giant to worry about any longer.
David could fight this battle because he had nothing to prove and nothing to lose. David fully realized what was at stake in fighting Goliath. He knew that one wrong move could cost his life. Undoubtedly he was very nervous when he was walking down the hill and noticing that this giant appeared to be getting bigger and bigger. But David could not forget that Goliath was making a disgrace of God and His people, and David would not stand for that. You see, David did not go to the valley of Elah expecting a battle. He went because he was sent by his father to check up on his three older brothers who were soldiers in the army. David, more than likely, had no idea who Goliath was. Yet, that’s the way it is with giants that we must battle. We never expect them; they just show up. David fought with nothing to prove and nothing to lose.
Verses 45 ff tell us David and Goliath approached each other in battle, each with his own weapons. David four times expressed his trust in the Lord before, during, and after the battle. Finally, he defeated the giant because he trusted in God to show him the unique way that God wanted him to fight this battle. All of the odds had been against David, as he went against someone more than twice his size covered in full body armor, and all David had were five smooth stones and a slingshot. But NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE ABILITY OF A HEART COMMITTED TO GOD. David was committed to the Lord and God used him in a way that would change him forever.
Senator Mark Hatfield wrote of touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the “House of Dying.” It is a home where sick children are cared for in their last days and where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Hatfield watched Mother Teresa and her companions care for those who had been left by others to die and he remembers being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the suffering they faced everyday. Hatfield approached Mother Teresa and said, “How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?” Mother Teresa responded, “Senator, I’m not called to be successful. I’m simply called to be faithful.”
All of the giants that we battle are designed to bring us closer to God. We cannot go into battle to build up an impressive record of wins or go thinking that we’ll fight the battle under our own strength. This is simply a call from God to stand up to the giants in our lives, and to be faithful to him as we battle. We need to echo the call of David, “…the battle belongs to the Lord.”
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk8U58vfOoc
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment