Have you ever come up against a giant? The giant of sorrow? The giant of fear? The giant of hopelessness? The giant of financial devastation? The giant of betrayal? The giant of terror? Name your giant. There are literally hundreds of them in the world. What is a David to do?
We know that God had His eye on this young shepherd boy. He saw something in him that He could groom to bring glory to the God of Israel. A boy destined to lead more than the sheep in his fold. A shepherd who would be a King one day.
He is a young shepherd boy. The youngest of eight sons of the elder father, Jesse. Jesse packs a big basket of goodies and asks David to leave his sheep and carry food to the front lines of the battlefield. His three older brothers are soldiers in Saul’s army. So David placed his sheep under the care of another and sets out for the Valley of Elah.
There he sees the Philistines and the Israelites on opposite hills in the Valley of Elah. They face each other in a standoff. A large giant of a man has been taunting God’s army to send their best to fight him. So far there are no takers. Saul and his men tremble in fear of this gigantic champion of the Philistine camp. He is huge! Don’t we often see our giants as oversized and unconquerable? Don’t we tremble when we face them?
David inquires. What is going on? Who is this who dares to defy God’s army? His older brother taunts him and suggests he should get back to his sheep. Basically, leave this big boy stuff to the big boys, who are trembling in fear. There have been no takers to the challenge. David continues to ask his question until he gets an answer. He asks to have the opportunity to greet this giant in the valley and take care of him. Notice, he is going out to meet the giant. He is not running away, hiding, trembling. He has unlimited confidence in the God who this giant is defying.
There is a bit of a delay as Saul puts his armor on David to protect him. David makes the decision to take it off. He arms himself with five smooth stones, his shepherds staff and sling and begins his walk toward the giant who will meet him in the valley. Isn’t that the same valley we hear about in Psalm 23? The valley of the shadow of death. The valley we walk through rather than reside in.
Thought For Today:
This young shepherd boy was angry that the army of the living God would be challenged by this giant. This evil force. He used what he had to meet the giant. He was victorious because his God was with him.
When our giants come against us, don’t we get scared and falter a bit? Our battle is never alone. God walks before and behind us. He will enable us to be victorious over the giants in our lives. We take His word and we let the enemy know that his new opponent is a champion in God’s army. Unafraid and unencumbered. Prepared.
Sometimes we look across the valleys of our lives and the giants appear too big to overcome, to defeat. I wonder. Why did Jesse send this child to the battlefield? I think that God had more to do with commissioning David to make a lunch run to Saul’s mighty army of terrified soldiers, than his father. God wants us to see that size does not matter when the living God is with us. High tech weapons are not necessary to take down the giants in life. All we need is a well aimed shot with the word of God. Our sling is our prayer time. Load it up and let it fly…often.
God will see to it that we take down one challenge, one giant, at a time. Each small victory gives us courage to reload and meet the next one who dares to come against a child of the living God. That is who we are. His children, His army. We matter to God. He empowers us to be victorious. He prepares us to meet our giants. Some are smaller than others but scary just the same. Our commander sees the whole battlefield. He sees our valleys way before we do. He prepares us to meet the challenge and be stronger than we ever imagined we could be. We meet our giants with a challenge as David, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies- the God of the armies of Israel, whom You have defied.”
Scripture For Today:
I Samuel 17:46
45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (NLT)
Prayer For Today:
Hello Father! We pray for the courage of Your Shepherd, King David. We pray that we stand as David ready to meet the giants the enemy intends to defeat us with. We pray that we evaluate our lives. That we make changes where we fail you daily. That we arm ourselves with the tools You make available to us. That we surround ourselves with fellow soldiers of Christ who can pray for us as we approach our valleys. That praise is what You hear from us as we leave our giants defeated behind us. That we remember who we are. We are children of the living God. We are washed in the blood and forgiven by the grace of Christ. Forgive us of our sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
© 2015 Kathy Ledbetter All rights reserved.