33. David and Goliath (1 Samuel 16:1-18:16).

by Wesley Blackburn

Maybe some of you are already pretty familiar with this story. It's certainly a famous one, and for good reason. I know that growing up in church, this was one of the stories that I heard a lot in Sunday School.

That can be a good or a bad thing. It's good in the sense that we are already familiar with this. It's nothing new. We know what to expect. But in a lot of ways, this can be a bad thing, too. We may have a tendency to look at this narrative simply as a "kids' story" and not really examine it or look at it for what we can learn about God through it.

I love stories like this; stories where things were all against someone or a group of people, but then God shows up and saves the day. They are a reminder to me of the great power and might of the God I serve. They remind me that He is in control of all things, even when circumstances of my life seem to dictate the exact opposite.

Never more was that the case than with David and Goliath. There was nothing about David that shouted "great warrior." He was a tiny little runt of a kid whose only previous experience with battle had been killing animals in order to protect his father's sheep. David was so small and unimposing that the armor Saul gave him for protection was too heavy and constricting for him.

But what David lacked in stature, he made up for with heart. All throughout this story, David just has this incredibel heart that makes you want to naturally follow his lead. He genuinely cared for the glory of God; it was unthinkable to him that the army of Israel would allow a pagan Philistine to make fun of God on a daily basis. Instead of seeing all the impossibilities like Saul and the rest of the Israelite army, David saw possibility. He saw that God was on his side. He trusted God enough to know that that power would go before him in his fight with Goliath. And sure enough, it did.

I think that speaks to us and our lives in a cool way. We are going to come up against circumstances that are just absolute giants in our lives. A lot of times for me, those "giants" are my sins, my doubts, my insecurities. Maybe for you it's something you feel that God has given you a vision and a calling for, but you have no idea how to do it because it's so huge and impossible-looking. But whatever your giant is, the story of David and Goliath reminds me that when we are working to advance God's honor, fame, and kingdom in our lives, He will always take us up on His shoulders and make things happen. As Andy Stanley says in his book Visioneering, "What God originates, God also orchestrates."