Last term we learned that we must
do our best on the journey to where God is leading us. He will use
the experience that we gained on our life's journey to glorify His
Name and to build His Kingdom.
And one of the ways that God helped
David to gain even more experience was with his famous encounter
with Goliath. This encounter was recorded right after stating that
David was playing the harp for Saul. This displays that God helped
David to learn how to be a king inside the castle and how to be a
king on the outside, fighting wars.
Now most of you know this story off
by heart. But just to shortly recap. The Philistines gathered their
armies together for battle against the Israelites. The armies stood
facing one another, each on a mountain with a valley between them.
Then every day Goliath, a giant 3metres tall, will come and
challenge the Israelite army:
"Choose a man for yourselves,
and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and
kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against
him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us." 1
Samuel 17:9
And the Bible records the reaction
of Saul and the Israelites:
"When Saul and all of Israel
heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly
afraid." 1 Samuel 17:11
They were greatly afraid. They lost
sight of the mighty God that they serve and were greatly afraid of
a 'giant' of 3metres tall. Against their God Goliath was puny, a
small ant, but when they lost sight of God, and how mighty and how
great He was, Goliath was a giant to them.
Doesn't this happen to us as well?
I have seen myself faced with many giants and I was greatly afraid
of them. I looked at them from an earthly perspective and I didn't
know how I was going to defeat them. And I must be honest, I prayed
over all these situations, but somehow I still lost sight of how
awesome, big and great our God was. It was only when God tugged at
my heart strings and showed me how great, loving and absolutely
sovereign He is that I obtained perspective again. It was then that
the giant that I faced started to fade in comparison. Time spent
with Him, growing by feeding on His Word, made me stronger and
stronger, growing bit by bit into the fullness of Christ as the
Bible urges us to. Jesus opened up the way for us to become like
Him on earth, because He lives in us and through us! And when we
realize the full impact of Him living IN us, we can face any giant
and they will need to retreat!
Poor Saul and the Israeli army
didn't have His mighty Spirit living in them as we do. We have a
huge advantage over them and we need to start using it. Jesus came
to open up the way for us to access unlimited power. But He is not
going to force it on us, we need to use it.
What giants are you facing today?
See how God is mightier than them all, see how powerful He is, how
big, how Almighty and then look again at your giant with different
eyes. We are more than conquerors through Jesus that gives us the
strength we need! No giant should taunt us! We are children of the
Most High God.
Thank you Father that You are
almighty, big, powerful and without equal. Thank you that You are
by our side!! We praise You and glorify Your mighty Name! Thank you
that we never need to fear giants in our lives. Amen