Fighting Your BattlesSample

Just because you recognize your calling doesn’t mean the giant goes away. It just means that you recognize, My calling is bigger than my giant.

When David showed up at the valley carrying only a slingshot, Goliath took one look and laughed. That’s what the old pros do. First Samuel 17:42 (NIV) says the war veteran felt disdain, for David was “little more than a boy.” A boy with no spear, no armor, nothing. Obviously, a rookie.

What happens to rookies? They get put in their place. They get initiated. So Goliath starts talking trash and throwing shade at David and everyone he represents.

David didn’t blink. He knew whose jersey he was wearing. “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin,” he said, “but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head.”

God’s warrior wasn’t done. “I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand” (verses 45-47 ESV).

Again and again, right here, he says, “The Lord will do it. The Lord. The Lord. It’s not up to me.” Anytime you see something repeated in a Scripture passage, pay attention. It’s important. It means This is for real! Something big is happening.

We all know what happens next. Goliath steps toward David; David runs at Goliath, slings one stone—and down the giant goes. Verse 49 says, “The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.”

Do you see that? Goliath fell on his face.

To the ground.

Dead.

In verse 50, we’re reminded, “David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone…There was no sword in the hand of David.” God’s power, not manpower.

What David saw as he analyzed his opponent is what we have to see: the size of our giant doesn’t compare to the size of our God. That’s the game-changer. If the Spirit of the Lord is with us, then He is on us, in us, over us, behind us, and before us. That means we take God’s power and presence onto the field as we fight.

Think about your own life and the giant you’re up against. How are you seeing it?

Whichever giant you’re staring at right now, you will find the courage to face it in remembering. In remembering your calling, your covering, and your testimony. As I’ve said, remembering God doesn’t remove the giant. It just means you recognize that the God who goes with you is bigger than the giant who opposes you.