Does God's Sovereignty Reign in Your Life?Sample

In the Bear & Lion Moments

We love to hear stories of people who have overcome obstacles to achieve something in their life! We are inspired, encouraged, and motivated by these types of stories. In our reading for today, David tells King Saul a couple of stories of how he overcame obstacles to achieve some things in his life. We are calling these the “Bear & Lion Moments.” 

These are the times in our lives when we overcome circumstances, achieve something, and then could easily take the credit for them ourselves. Notice in verse 33 that King Saul is questioning David’s ability to fight this giant, Goliath. David, in turn, tells King Saul two stories about when he was a shepherd—the first about a time a bear attacked his sheep and the second about how a lion attacked them. A bear and a lion are quite the sizable obstacles to overcome and David conquered them both! 

In today’s world, David’s story of overcoming these obstacles would have been discussed as he is about to audition for American Idol or about to play in the Super Bowl. In response, we always expect those people to tell us how they succeeded and we typically hear answers like—"hard work, personal drive, and determination.” But notice David’s answer in verse 37—“the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” 

David’s response was to give God all the praise for defeating these obstacles instead of taking credit for his own strength and ability. Had David taken the credit, King Saul would have merely been impressed with David alone, but, because David gave God the credit, Saul went from questioning David’s abilities to face Goliath to remembering God’s sovereignty in the fight and its ultimate outcome. 

How many times do circumstances arise in our own lives that we overcome and then we write it off as an achievement of our own intellect, our own abilities and talents, our own strength, our own hard work, or our own greatness? If God is truly sovereign and in control of everything in our lives shouldn’t we, like David, give God the credit for these “bear and lion moments” in our lives as well? 

MEDITATION FOR THE DAY: Think of some of these “bear and lion moments” in YOUR life where you overcame or achieved something and how God might use those things to glorify (reflect) Himself to you and those around you.