September 2017 Articles

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Spiritual Corner:

Spiritual Corner:
“As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.” —1st Samuel 17:48
The above scripture is so incredibly powerful to me. I feel that God gives us all of these stories in His word to help us and to inspire us. When I first read 1st Samuel 17:48, it immediately stuck out to me. While at first glance it seems to be simply a sentence relaying a fact, when you pause a second to study it, you realize how much is really said in that simple sentence. Let’s look at it for a minute. “As the Philistine moved closer to attack him…”. The Philistine, we all know, is Goliath. Goliath was a giant. He was larger than anyone we know in the world today by a fair amount. Not only was he huge, but he was also a trained warrior. He had on armor and had dangerous weapons AND he was moving toward David to attack him. Now let’s look at David. David was young, a teenager probably. He was pretty strong for his age, but he definitely was no giant. He wasn’t a warrior; he was a shepherd. In fact, he wasn’t even part of the King’s military. David did not have any armor or dangerous weapons. All he had was his slingshot and a few stones. And you know what? David RAN QUICKLY toward the battle line. Toward the battle line to meet Goliath. How in the world was he able to do this? It’s because David had one thing that I hadn’t mentioned yet. Besides having a slingshot and a few stones, David was armed with an immense trust in His LORD. David trusted His God SO much that he wasn’t afraid to face Goliath. In fact, he was beyond eager to face him! He was ready to show everyone what God could do! This scripture is so inspiring to me. You see, we all have a Goliath (or two, or three, or four) in our lives. How are we facing our Goliath? Are we cowering away from it? Are we stressing out and worrying over dealing with it? Are we attempting to trust God with it, but still doubting? I’ll be the first to admit that I try to give my problems completely to God, but somehow the devil always sneaks that fear and worry back into my life. I find myself trying to lean on God and His Word, but then I become fearful again, afraid I’m going to fail or not be good enough. That’s when reading this scripture about David really speaks to me. I pray that I, and all of us, can be more like David. I pray that we can trust in our LORD so completely and intensely that we are not only unafraid of our Goliaths, but that we are eagerly running towards them, ready to show the world what our God can do! If we can trust God in that way, just imagine how we could spread the Gospel to the world. Let’s be thankful for our Goliaths today, and let’s use them to show the world our faith in the one, true God. With God, anything is possible. With God, our Goliaths will surely fall to the ground before our feet and our Almighty Father will be glorified!
—Dana Alexander