The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 17:38-51 (day six)

The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!- David, 1 Samuel 17:37

Tempered steel is so strong because it has been repeatedly heated and cooled just before its boiling point. This kind of stress on the steel hardens it beyond its original composition. David’s faith is like tempered steel.

I am amazed by David’s faith in God; his trust in God’s provision. This faith didn’t come by way of acquiring knowledge but by tempering. Over time, as a goat herder, he had increasingly entrusted himself to the Lord. Can you imagine the first time he had to defend his goats against a lion or bear? David had to decide at that moment, is God good for this? Each crisis put his faith under fire and strengthened it, hardened it for battle.

This made me wonder how often my faith is tested. Do I have a risky faith that heats it up just right before its boiling point? Do I allow my faith to be tempered, like David’s? If I am going to be hardened for battle in facing Goliaths, then I must entrust myself to him when I face the lions and bears along the way.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 17:38-51 (day five) “This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.”
What David did was incredible. No doubt about it. Killed Goliath with a sling and a stone. We know from reading 1 Samuel 17, that what actually happened was that God used David to kill Goliath. VS 46.
The biggest battle David fought (that day and often) was his inner fear (that the Israel armies had succumbed to). To them, Goliath seemed larger than God (fear). To David, God was larger than Goliath (faith). So, where did David’s faith come from?  I believe it came from “repeating and remembering”. Repeating God’s promises. And remembering God’s power. Something the Israelites failed to do. Just 3 chapter earlier in 1 Samuel, many of those same soldiers saw God use Jonathan to defeat a Philistine garrison. Yet, they forgot. That experience had left their minds.  Not David. He repeated God’s promise (anointed as king) and remembered God’s power (bear and lion). It was a constant battle and discipline for David. Read the first 25 Psalms. Fear creeps in. David prays (repeats and remembers). Finds faith. Should be for us too. Daily repeating God’s promises found in scripture. Remembering God’s power working in, around, and through us.
Being thankful to God helps shape these disciplines. When we can’t be reminded of God’s promises and God’s power, we most likely are in a place of great despair and fear. (Israelite Army) We should learn from David’s example. We find faith and courage. For the Glory of God!!

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 17:38-51 (day four)

When the Lord calls us to face something big or start something new, we often convince ourselves that our current condition is not enough. We think we need to somehow add to ourselves in order to be up for the task, so we feign a confident persona, or look to worldly ideas for self-improvement, or try anything to appear as the person we think we should be, rather than who we are. We convince ourselves that we don’t have what it takes, and we try to fill in the gaps, often in vain.

David didn’t fall for this lie, though. He knew that winning this battle had nothing to do with his ability, and everything to do with God’s presence. When Saul told him that he was inadequate, he tried on the clunky armor and realized it would hinder him, not help him. David walked confidently in the knowledge that he had all he needed – the Lord was with him, and the Lord had already gifted David with all the abilities he needed to take down Goliath.

When you’re staring down your next giant, don’t turn to those clunky strategies of the world. Turn to the Lord, he has already given you all that you need.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 17:38-51 (day three)

“And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead.”

Saul and the army of Israel saw a physically imposing battle-hardened vanguard of the Philistine juggernaut. David saw a Philistine military vulnerable enough to present as their best move an over-confident blowhard past his prime and unprotected against severe head trauma. If God does not see as man sees, and if David was a man who followed that pattern — “after God’s own heart” — then this is what that looks like in action. May we learn from God to see like that.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 17:38-51 (day two) 

Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. vs 48

How often do you run to meet a challenge? How often do you face insurmountable odds and danger with abandon? More importantly, how often do you feel the pleasure of the Lord in what you are called to do? Call it the impetuousness of youth if you like, but there is more than youthful zeal in David’s action. He has rightly discerned that if the Lord is for you, then nothing that opposes you will stand. This isn’t just a beloved Old Testament story, this is our spiritual reality. God doesn’t measure obstacles the way we do, just as he didn’t judge a king’s stature when choosing David. Know the Lord is on your side, and run to face whatever challenges are in your way.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 16:5-13 (day seven)

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. vs 13

Even before Pentecost, there were manifestations of the Holy Spirit within individuals whom God had chosen for miraculous works. As we have studied in previous weeks, Joshua, Samson and many others were filled and equipped just when they needed it most. It was not their own power that led them, but the power of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is not a construct that came about solely out of New Testament texts. Interwoven from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is a story about the Godhead. We can see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working as One on every page. Our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This same God has chosen you today. He has filled you with His Spirit. What miraculous works is He empowering you to do?

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 16:5-13 (day six)

Messiah is the English transliteration of the Hebrew word that means “anointed one.” That’s what Samuel did to David in 1 Samuel 16; he became an anointed one. A messiah was one who was devoted to God for a particular purpose; to serve as a “bridge between heaven and earth.” (Tim Mackee, bibleproject.com).

When Greek scholars translated the same Hebrew word, it became christos, or christ in English. Jesus Christ literally means “Jesus, the anointed one.” David was a precursor to Jesus’ eternal rule as the anointed king.

In Antioch, after the birth of the early church, followers of Jesus were called “Christians,” which means “little Christs,” or “little anointed ones.” That’s us. We are little anointed ones, like King David before us. We are heirs with David, called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be God’s “bridge between heaven on earth” until the eternal King returns.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 16:5-13 (day five)  “And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are these all the children?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep.”
God was already  preparing David to be His King. Amazingly, David’s best training and preparation came in a pasture not a palace. The gifts, skills, attitudes, and perspectives that were needed to be King were being developed and honed as a child in the field. Care, courage, faithfulness, determination were some of the lessons David was learning while tending the sheep (remember Jesus’ words to Peter).
There were no robe fittings yet. There were no interviews or press releases. Samuel goes to Ramah and David goes back to the sheep.
What lessons and insights are God teaching in the ordinary and routine things of life? (great opportunity for parents and grandparents to help children sense and see God at work)

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 16:5-13 (day four)

At first, David wasn’t even brought into the room when Samuel came to his family’s house. He wasn’t just last on the list for who might be anointed as king, he wasn’t on the list at all. Over and over again throughout Scripture, we see God choosing the person that the world would never even consider. That concept is woven into our Savior’s DNA. God intentionally made his Son’s family tree full of people that the world had counted out.

But when this occurs in our own life, we still get surprised by it, don’t we? We might even become angry when we see God moving through someone that we hadn’t considered worthy. It gives us some cognitive dissonance when God works through someone with opposite political opinions, someone who’s culture we don’t understand, or someone who rubs us the wrong way. Our human nature wants to count people out, but God wants to count people in.

Who have you counted out lately? The Lord is most likely doing a work to count them in.