Facing Goliath...

 Facing Goliath....

Yesterday, I started into David who was anointed to be king after Saul...

I just read, “ for the battle is the Lord’s” 1 Samuel 17:47b...when my phone pinged downloading a message from a friend...

(Back story...a friend and I are helping a young lady in Zambia go to college in some kind  of medical field.....not a scam...as the Western union or the bank asks questions faithfully about...the young lady is real, known by my friend, who is a missionary in Mozambique...)

All this to say, the young lady is facing her exams for midterms and is stressing about them...needs prayer for courage, strength, wisdom, a clear mind, fears to diminish....

I pinged back that verse...not sure where it went, how it was received ....whatever...but was just encouraged again that not matter where in the world we are, we can encourage, pray for one another...God can use a verse on one side of the world to fit into the life of another anywhere on the planet...who may be facing a Goliath in their lives...

David  had tried on the armor of Saul, but declined, then picking up his staff, 5 stones from the the brook, his sling, went up against Goliath, the challenging giant of a man...

But, David had faith that the living God was with him, facing a giant, facing the circumstances...

David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 

Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 

But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 

Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 

The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” 

Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” 

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 

This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. 

This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 

All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

1 Samuel 17:32-37,45-47

Goliaths....we all face them...from time to time or for some, all the time...we can be defeated by their claims, the fears that surround,  ...but we can pick up our five little pebbles, “the battle is the Lord’s” and move forward,  claiming victory...knowing that God will take care of “Goliath” for us...

I have put on that armor that didn’t fit, untried, false bravery in myself and found it didn’t work...needed to get back to the basics of what I knew to be true... God will take care ...He will strengthen when I am weak...thank YOU...

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. 

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 

Colossians 1:9-12

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7 

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

2 Thessalonians 3:3