Seeking His Heart
At last we see that…
David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. I Samuel 17:50
We’re kind of okay with that, knowing the constant threat on the people of Israel, but it’s the next verse that we might find disturbing.
David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. I Samuel 17:51
Now what do we do with that? This has always been a bit troubling to me. I found a new book by Louie Giglio to be helpful. In “Goliath Must Fall,” Giglio relates a story from his youth when he helped with a Christian camp in the summers. A constant problem plagued the camp leaders—poisonous snakes.
Every afternoon, several of the helpers went searching for the snakes. They used baseball bats to beat them to death! But that wasn’t the end of the job because, though the snake was dead, its head still had the poisonous venom in it. If people accidentally stepped on the head, they could still be affected by the venom.
How did they protect the campers from stepping on the heads? They had to bury them.
Giglio likens this to David’s dilemma. It wasn’t enough to kill the giant with the sling. At that great distance, the Philistine army might think their hero had just been wounded and come storming to take over David and the Israelite army. When the shepherd boy pulled out the sword, slashed it down on Goliath’s neck, and pulled up the head, he demonstrated dramatically that this giant was indeed dead.
Giglio suggests that we all have giants that plague us. It may not be a trash-talking foe. It may not be the temptation to get drunk or experiment with drugs or have an affair. Oh no, Satan can be far more cunning and deceptive than that. We may wrestle with the “lesser” giants; slight gossiping, demanding to have our way about things or always giving in, arrogance or feeling inadequate.
Satan delights with infiltrating our hearts and messing with our minds. He delights when we spend hours on our cell phones but have no time for prayer and devotions. He smiles when we’re so busy with life that we haven’t thought about witnessing to anyone in months or years. He triumphs when jealousy or bitterness leads to anger and anger leads to rage.
What is the giant in your life? Are you willing to face it? What will it take to bring it down? What will it take to completely overcome?
I think of one of my life verses—
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
~ Joyce ~
Very good! I always read your posts. This one in particular spoke to me and circumstances I see every day. Thank you for your writing!
Glenda, good to hear from you. I appreciate faithful readers. Makes the weekly task worth the time and effort.
Your blog is great!
Karen, thank you for your faithfulness.
What a wonderful verse to conclude with the David and Goliath. That is my mother’s favorite scripture. Thank you for your gift every Thursday. I am in a non denominational study on Thursday morning so I save you for an end of my day pondering. You are such a wise woman and I miss you. I pray that somewhere God is preparing a man to come to st Matthews. And a selfish prayer that the guitars will be seated with the orchestra. I listen to dr Jeffers at first baptist Dallas. His sermons are so politically incorrect and the choir will just make you swell up w emotion. I will send you one of their songs my favorite Our choir at st Matt was always wonderful too. I was always so take. Into the spirit with the choir. Aren’t we thankful nothing happened to Tim. Forgive me for going on so. I pray the Lord will Guard my mind and my mouth and sometimes I slip up. Thinking of you with great affection. Nancy.
Nancy, so good to hear from you. Thank you for your kind words.