Firestarters: Ignite the Faith WithinExemplo

Wild Dogs

In 1 Samuel 14, we find an incredible story of faith, as two men, Jonathan and his armor-bearer, audaciously step out against their enemies in seemingly impossible circumstances.

The Philistine army was at an advantageous position at the top of a cliff. Jonathan and his young armor-bearer had just one sword between them: two men taking on a whole army with one weapon. This crazy plan gets even better, though; the name of one of the cliffs they were to climb to get to the Philistines was called ‘Sineh,’ meaning thorns. It would be a sharp and difficult climb, and when you got to the top, there would be an army waiting to kill you, as Jonathan’s plan was to show himself to them.

Sometimes we pray for God to move the mountain when God wants us to climb up its jaggedy rockface instead. You might get cut, be sore, or uncomfortable, but God is calling you to apply your faith unswervingly to take possession of what He has called you to do.

I can’t tell you how often people have told Heather and me that we believe ‘too big,’ that we are taking our faith to a bit of an extreme level. ‘You need to be a bit more realistic.’ When was faith ever realistic? When people start speaking doubt over me, it is provocative: it causes me to be more determined to believe in impossible things. There is a fight in me that rises up—a fight to believe. There was a fight in Jonathan and the armor-bearer that day to act audaciously in line with the faith they had in who God was.

• Are there any areas of your life where you are praying for God to move the mountain, and He asks you to climb the rockface?
• Where might you need to have a wilder, less-tamed faith?
• Jonathan and his armor-bearer provoked faith in each other. How can you put yourself in an environment or community where that boldness of faith is encouraged, not flattened?