Last week we talked about building on rock and that the consequences of not doing that are great. ‘The fall of that house (the one built on sand) was great!’

This week we’re looking at the life of David. Another fantastic story of winning in the face of great defeat.

Did you know that an ant can carry 20 times its body weight? That’s incredible isn’t it? Whenever I read a fact like that, it makes me think about what I am capable of now that I have the creator of the universe living inside of me! Let me pose this question that was asked of us once, many years ago, by God, through John: “What would you attempt for God if you knew you couldn’t fail?” Pause, think, dream, then do it!

David was a shepherd boy, he looked after sheep. This gave him hours of time to prepare with his sling shot for what was to happen one day in his future. Hours! He had also killed bears and lions – note plural because it was more than one (1Samuel 17:36) I’d be very impressed if he’d killed just one of each, but here it’s plural! Go David! I’d like to suggest that David was building his life on a firm foundation so that when the biggest battle of his life came along, he was more than ready!

Goliath

Goliath was 9ft. His coat weighed 8 and a half stone (55 kilos), his spearhead was 1 stone (6.6 kilos) he was carrying a lot of weight and weaponry. Goliath had been taunting the Israelites for 6 weeks, (1 Samuel 17: 16) no-one would take him on, Saul and all of Israel were dismayed and greatly afraid. (11) David arrives with his brothers’ packed lunches and says, ‘I’ll do it!’ (31) You’ll know that Saul gave David his armour which was far too heavy and big for him, David took his sling, picked up 5 stones and took his place to bring down Goliath. Verse 48 tells us that he ran to the battle line! Great picture of confidence.

What giant, if any, are you facing today? We are all living with the Covid giant. How are you reacting to that? Are you retreating? Are you dismayed and greatly afraid? Or have you girded up your loins, prepared your sling shot and ready to run at it? I hope it’s the last option. We can’t declare Psalm 91 and then retreat can we? Truth is, if we’ve killed lions and bears, we should be ready for anything!

When you build on rock, you have much more confidence in the face of battles, you have much more confidence in prayer when the storms of life hit.

Afterthought – November 14th 2020

Listen to this quote from Myles Munro

“The kingdom of darkness gets its power from that which we do not know. The truth we are ignorant of cannot protect us against satan’s deception”

What an incredible sentence. In other words, if we don’t know the word of God, if we don’t spend time building on the rock, if we don’t know what God says about who we are in him, satan can and does throw us around like rag dolls! “My people are destroyed through lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)

It’s not enough to know Jesus (it is for eternity, that’s all you need for that, praise Him) but, if you want a victorious life on earth before you live in paradise forever, you must get to know about Him and His word.

You’re not protected because you’re born again. You’re protected because you’ve practised with your sling shot and killed a few lions and bears! You’ve put the ground work in. You’ve built on the rock.

Go sling a few stones!

See you next week! D x