After writing my last blog "what do you think of God", I began to consider the character in the Bible who had the clearest grasp of how awesome and powerful God truly is. That person is David.
David's fame starts in 1 Samuel 17, but he would go on to author the majority of Psalms, a book full of musical and poetic praise to the most high God.
Samuel describes a small shepherd boy, the youngest of his siblings. This overlooked and ignored young man at the beginning of the chapter seems to suddenly transform into a mighty hero by the time he felled Goliath toward the end of the scene.
Take the time to realize that Samuel gave no literary room for transformation to occur between the shepherd boy and the slayer of Goliath.
It all happened in one chapter.
David didn’t hear rumors about Goliath, take the time to size him up, go find a master of mixed martial arts and train with him on a Tibetan mountain for a year or two, study hours of film, devise strategic tactics, and come back stronger than ever before to claim his heavyweight belt in the 3rd round of some title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
David simply heard there was an enemy, and went.
David knew whose side the enemy was on.
David simply heard there was an enemy, and went.
David also knew who was on the side of the Israelites; a God that the majority of Israelite army had completely forgotten about. David had faith that with God, he could defeat Goliath.
I see a lot of similar qualities between men today and David.
The fad right now are personality profiles like Enneagram or Meyers-Briggs. We want to know who we are.
After analyzing where we are in many ways, we often begin to see some contrast between the person we display ourselves to be and the person we think God "wants" us to be.
We work so hard on transforming into the person that we think God could use that we fail to realize that God isn’t even asking us to transform.
He’s simply asking us to step up to the call, step onto the battlefield, and trustingly step into his power.
We work so hard on transforming into the person that we think God could use that we fail to realize that God isn’t even asking us to transform.
When I looked into the results of my profiles and the goals I have set for myself throughout this year, I began to wonder what David would have to say about them. I think he would ask us three questions:
1. Are you reliant on God to defeat your Goliath?
David could have easily settled for herding sheep in his field because it was comfortable and familiar.
Reading David's story, we know God used him not only to defeat a giant, to also to rule the whole nation of Israel, and most importantly, to descend God’s one and only son and savior of the universe through his royal bloodline.
Do you think anyone could've seen this coming?
None of this happened because God had to use David, but all of it happened because David believed God could use him and he made himself available.
2. Is God on your battlefield or on your bench?
How many Goliaths do we sling stones at ignoring the fact that God is standing on our sideline the whole time? God wants to be your starter, but we like to keep him as a backup. We bench our MVP as soon as we show up to the Super Bowl and still expect to win.
God wants to be your starter, but we like to keep him as a backup.
Finally,
3. How many rocks are you bringing to the fight?
David picked up five stones, but he knew he only needed one.
One shot is all it takes.
Do we have the courage to count on our first shot to be the one who drops our giants, or will we run out of reserves because we were too weak to make the first five shots count?
We serve a God who only needs one shot. Will you give it to him today?
I guess I'll have to wait for Heaven to see if my assessment of David was correct. I'm excited to hear what he has to say about this blog. Thankfully I don't have to wait for Heaven to hear what you think, so login and comment below.
Give me your best shot.
Abundantly,
hw