My husband is away more than he's home; it's just the way it is, and while there are days, or sometimes weeks, that are really difficult, somehow the kids and I make it through...one day at a time. You see, God has an amazing way of giving us exactly what we need for each and every day. Some days there is nothing left at the end of it, but His mercy is new every morning. For forty years the Israelites awoke to manna from heaven to feed them, so too I awake each day with my fill to get me from sunrise to sunrise. That's how I do it; step by step with faith knowing that today, and only today, is what matters.
I meet with a small group of military wives once a week while our husbands are away. We've been focusing our discussions on the book of James, and for the past few weeks we've been really meditating on faith and deeds; how the blending of our beliefs and actions attest to the faith we have in our Savior. James 2:26 says, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
This doesn't mean that without action we don't really have salvation; it just means that without action we can't produce fruit, we can't sow seeds, and while we are still attached to the body, we're not much good to it.
Throughout this discussion we started talking about examples of faith in the Bible. A question was posed asking what man or woman of faith was our favorite example from the Word. I was stumped for a while, and as the roll call of names started filing through my mind I thought, "How in the world can you pick just one???" Reading Hebrews 11 alone you have more than a handful of amazing examples of faithful men and women to choose from. I was bothered by having to pick one (not that I had to, but the question was out there, and I wanted to answer it), but then I realized that David kept coming to my mind.
In Hebrews 11 David is listed among those the author "didn't have time to tell about...", but as faithful nonetheless. Let me tell you what David means to me, and why he is the answer to my favorite example of faith as it applies to my life.
David was a shepherd boy who was chosen by God and anointed by Samuel to one day become the king. God had his hand on David from the beginning, and as David's life unfolds throughout scripture we see that he was very human, and very faithful. I am amazed at David's heart of praise for God; in the victories, in the midst of battles, and in the throes of sin and its consequences David's faith never wavered. There were times that He felt God's face turn from him, but even then he held on and praised His Name. I love it, but my favorite part of his story comes when he was just a boy.
We tell our kids the Sunday School version of David and Goliath; there's a cute little song about it, and there is a VeggieTales version of it where David is an asparagus and Goliath is a big pickle. We down play it and over-talk it, but have you ever stopped to think of that little boy standing in front of that gigantic, fearsome man, preparing to fight to the death? I know for me, I often don't think of these biblical figures as real flesh and blood people; they are stories, and I am so far removed from that time in history that they almost seem like fairy tales, but they're not. Those people in those stories were really; they were just like you and me. They had feelings and fears; they loved and they despised. They felt pain, they felt cold and heat, and they breathed in and breathed out the same as me and you.
In 1 Samuel 16 we read of Samuel anointing David; when Samuel was searching for God's chosen one (David) the Lord said to him, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him (speaking of David's older brother). The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." As soon as Samuel saw David he knew that David was "the one" despite his age or small size.
A short while later the Philistines came to wage war on the Israelites; the two armies occupied hillsides facing one another. Imagine the tension that was building between these two; the hatred, the waiting...
The bible says Goliath was over nine feet tall; he was clothed in armor from head to foot. Goliath boldly paraded in front of the Israelites for forty days, and for forty days he tormented them. They were at a standstill; the Philistines knew no one could defeat Goliath. They had it in the bag, and yet they waited, and waited. The bible says that every morning the armies would line up and face each other; Goliath would step forward and Israel would cower. Here was a people who God had protected and gone before over and over and over again, yet they still feared; they still didn't trust Him.
Who would've known that on the fortieth day David would enter the camp? When Samuel had anointed David the bible says in 1 Samuel 16:13 that, "from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power." With God's Spirit, David was bold in his actions, and he never doubted that he and his people were squarely in the palm of God's hand.
David came to the camp that day to deliver food to the Israelites, and to check up on his brothers; he was too young to join the army, and he had stayed home to tend to the sheep while his brothers were away. He arrived just as the armies were lining up, and in his excitement he ran to the battles lines to see his brothers. It was at that moment that Goliath appeared across the valley, and it was at that moment that the whole of the Israelite army ran in fear from this giant of a man. As David set out to discover who this giant was and just why no one was willing to stand up to him, he found himself in the tent of King Saul: "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 boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.' But David said to Saul,'....the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear (while tending sheep) will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.'"
David, small as he was, was confident that God would deliver him; while grown men cowered, this young boy stood up.
Saul tried to clothe David in armor, and respectfully David declined; he took his shepherd's staff, a sling and five little stones, and stood before Goliath. Goliath taunted him, dismissed him, and threatened to feed his flesh to the birds. David stood his ground. I imagine in that moment he had fluttering inside of him. I think of the father in Mark chapter 9 who said to Jesus, "I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!" David trusted in the one true God, but he was a human boy with human feelings; he wasn't a fairy tale character devoid of emotion yet he stood there boldly with God by his side. God gave him the power and the belief to overcome fear. Seeing David's boldness Goliath was enraged; in his fury he started to run towards David. David took one stone, put it in his sling, heaved it at the giant, and killed him. He didn't have armor, he didn't have a sword, he didn't have an army with shields and weapons of every kind backing him up; he had a stone, a sling, and the God of Israel on his side...that's it.
I love David; I love that when everyone else cowered away he stood up and fought. He was just boy, but God's spirit was with him, and with that nothing was impossible for him.
My friends and I are facing a giant right now. In just a few weeks our husbands will leave on an extended deployment. What that means is that the usual six month deployments that we are used to is not what we're facing. We're looking at about 9 months without our husbands; while our community has it "easy" compared to some in the military, that's still an incredibly long time to be away from your loved one; that's still an incredibly long time for 3 little boys to be missing their daddy. It's a giant, and it's standing there before us just waiting... We're at a stand still; when our husbands return home next week we will have a short reprieve before we step across that valley and come face to face with the inevitable.
On my own I'm not strong enough, but the Holy Spirit is with me in power, and though I'm small and I'm weak He is more than strong enough to walk me (and all of my friends and our husbands) through each and every day that we are apart.
That's my giant; it's glaring, it's taunting, and it's not going away until we deal with it head on. That's the way giants are; they're ugly, they're fearsome, and they'll overcome you if you let them.
Are you facing a giant right now? Are you confident with where you stand? Is your faith strong enough to enable you to step forward when everyone else steps back? Do you trust that each day God will provide you with at you need?
If not, check yourself, get on your knees and have a conversation your Savior; He is the giver of strength. You may not have an army who's got your back, you may be alone as you stand before your Goliath, and on your own you may be completely under equipped to fight any battle, but when you put your complete trust and faith in the one true God, and step out to fight the fight He has called you to...it's in the bag. Face your giant with the boldness that comes from your God who's power is made perfect in your weakness.
You are my King and my God,
who decrees victories for Jacob.
Through you we push back our enemies;
through your name we trample our foes.
I do not trust my bow,
my sword does not bring me victory;
but you give us victory over our enemies,
you put our adversaries to shame.
In God we make our boast all day long,
and we will praise your name forever.
Psalm 44:4-8
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