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.