Day 78, or March the 19th.
Be yourself and trust in God.
Our thought today comes from 1 Samuel chapter 17 verse 45.
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.
Now the big picture surrounding this verse.
Exactly halfway through the book of 1 Samuel, God is true to His word and rejects Saul
in favour of a young lad called David.
Saul had been warned many times, but he failed to mend his ways, so God honoured His word
and appointed a new king, who was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse, who lived in Bethlehem.
David goes on to kill the giant Goliath in what must be one of the best-known adventures
in the Bible.
It all took place not far from Jerusalem, in the valley of Elah.
Not much has changed since those days.
In fact, the stream in the valley is still there, and is a great source of smooth, round
stones.
Now our action step for today.
Samuel learns a fundamental quality of God when he anoints David, and that is that God
looks on the inside and not the outside.
He sees us as we are and not as how we try to get others to view us, by projecting a
particular image which disguises the real you.
David didn't project any false image as he encountered Goliath.
Goliath, on the other hand, was so macho you can almost taste the testosterone from here.
David didn't exhibit blind faith either.
In fact, he used a lot of wisdom and cunning.
He picked up five stones even though he was confident of hitting Goliath first time.
Actually, Goliath had four big friends, so David was planning for possible future encounters.
He certainly trusted God, but he used common sense and his own expertise as well.
That's what God expects us to do every day.
Trust him and do all we are able to.
Don't ask God to do what you can do yourself.
At the same time, trust him to do what only he can.
That's a great partnership -
just ask Goliath and his big friends.