BIBLE READING

1 Samuel 17: 45-48

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 hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, 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.’

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him.

REFLECTION

Goliath is mocking David, trying to intimidate him with his words like he has done to everyone else. But David just totally ignores Goliath’s words and counters them with words of faith and confidence in God.

He says: 'You might have weapons, but I have Yahweh, I have the LORD Almighty on my side.'

He is so saturated with God, he is so aware of God’s power and presence, that he tells Goliath exactly what he is going to do to him. He prophetically declares by faith what is about to happen: 'I’m going to strike you down and I’m then going to chop your head off.'

He defeats words of lies and fear with words of faith and truth.

That is exactly what we need to do when the enemy comes against us with lies. We need to speak out God’s word about the situation, to declare God’s truth, actually out loud, declare what God says about the problem, to counter and defeat the lies of the Devil.

In the armour of God listed in Ephesians 6, the only weapon of attack that Paul mentions is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This is the most powerful weapon you have against the lies and intimidation of the enemy. God’s truth, God’s Word – will always defeat and destroy the lies of the evil one. We need to fill our minds with God’s word before the battle begins. In the midst of the battle it’s too late, it needs to be a daily habit that we take time each day to read and memorise parts of the Bible.

I love verse 48: “As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him."

As Goliath the giant moves towards David to attack him – what does David do? He runs towards Goliath. Everyone else would run away, but David has such confidence in God and such faith in God’s power that he runs towards him. Instead of going on the defensive, David goes on the offensive.

So many Christians and so many churches today are living in defensive mode – we’re on the retreat just trying to keep what we have. We’re not playing to win – we’re playing not to lose. Have you ever seen a sports team do that? They have convinced themselves that they can’t win, so all they want to do is play not to lose. It’s all about defense. Keep what we have, just try not to let too many in. A team like that never wins anything.

The church, and each of us as Christians, are not meant to spend our lives living in defensive mode. When Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago and rose from the grave he conquered Satan, sin, death and hell – he decisively won the victory on our behalf. If you like, he gave the ball to us, we are supposed to be on the offence, pressing forward, taking ground for the Kingdom of God, bringing God’s light into dark places, seeing broken lives put back together, seeing lost people find new life in Christ, seeing lives healed physically, emotionally, spiritually.

Instead of running from what you fear most - run towards it in God's mighty strength and see the victory He has already secured for you.