Playing Through the Pain: Dressed for BattleSample

1 Samuel Chapter 17 gives us an incredible bird’s eye view of David’s life leading up to the epic moment, when he fought with one of the land’s giants, the Philistine’s champion named Goliath, and won. I want to challenge you today to listen instead of reading. Just click the speaker button at the top right-hand side of your YouVersion app, and it will read today’s devotion to you while you sit back, pause the hustle and bustle of ‘doing’, and allow yourself to ‘be still’, and listen. Imagine, for a few seconds, that the scene is playing out right in front of you. Every moment and detail counts. Take it all in. Notice everything. After the day that Samuel visited Jesse’s home and anointed David, everything shifted for David, and then strangely, nothing changed. He was anointed and chosen for an incredible leadership appointment that would someday come to pass; however, in that moment, and for some time, David’s directive was to return to the field and remain busy with his current assignment. There was quite a bit of time between the ‘anointing’… of David as king... and the manifested ‘appointing’ of David to his throne. Sure, he experienced a preview of his rightful future assignment, when invited to the palace to play his harp for King Saul. But we also note that just as quickly as that began, it came to an end. Once again, everything seemed to be the same. Saul & the army went to war and David went back to the field. That is until the fateful day when David heard his father’s voice saying; “David, take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers. And give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring back a report on how they are doing.” (1 Samuel 17:17-18) Even after David had been ‘chosen’ for the palace, he took his responsibility for the sheep seriously. In fact, he took this assignment so seriously that when his future called him, he went the extra mile to make sure he first appointed another competent shepherd in his stead, and only then was he in a position to head to the battlefield as his father had instructed. Notice: The same way you leave something is how you will start  something new. Can you remember a time when something big happened that you had been waiting for or praying for, and then,  just as quickly as it shifted everything, nothing seemed to change? So then, David set out early the next morning, when the dew was still on the grass, to take the food and gifts to his brothers and their captain. When the young David arrived on the scene, he immediately experienced two things. He saw before him a ‘flock’ of men who were cowering on a hillside, and he saw a bear of a man, the enemy who was hurling insults and challenges at the ‘sheep.’ Pause this story just for a second and consider the difference between David and the ‘flock’ of Israelite soldiers standing on the hillside. Notice how David saw his past experience, as a solution to the present challenge. He saw a flock of sheep in need of a shepherd instead of a group of soldiers terrified at the thought of fighting the battle set before them. I am curious. When you look at your current situation, do you only see the challenge, or do you choose to see that God has prepared you with the solution? Take a minute to ask God what solutions you carry within, for challenges you find yourself facing. Everything you need is already within you.