11TH FEBRUARY
1 Samuel 17-37
“And David said: ‘The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you!’”
You need God-confidence, not self-confidence!
David was a teenage boy when he defeated Goliath, the giant all grown-up men in Israel were too scared to face. Where did David get the confidence to do the unthinkable—to go into the Valley of Elah and accept Goliath’s fight-to-death, winner-takes-all challenge? At first, it seems that David had a lot of self-confidence.
1 Samuel 17-36 “But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.’”
David seems to mention himself a lot in this verse. “I did this and I did that!” But he doesn’t stop there. Listen to his next words: “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
David knew he didn’t kill the lion or the bear all alone! He knew that it was God’s strength in him that helped him in times of trouble. It’s so obvious that his life experiences made David God-confident, not self-confident.
MAKE IT PERSONAL
Does talking about your faith with people scare you? Do you think that you can’t do it? Today choose to have God-confidence, not self-confidence.