Trusting in the Face of Giants

If the God who gave David the strength and confidence to defeat Goliath lives in us, then what do we truly have to fear?

Darkness cuts out vision. It creates an overwhelming sense of helplessness yet it is here that we can find ourselves thinking we are leaning on God the most. When people are going through the unknown, we tend to hear them say “I’m trusting God with it” or “God’s got it” and frankly we look at them in awe of their strength and courage to do so. And they do, it is hard at any point to fully trust God with your life and especially your circumstances. But for a moment consider, what about when you gain vision and clarity, do you still trust him then? When you see standing in front of you, all that you are about to have to endure and overcome, do you still have the full confidence to trust God with it? Even if we don’t admit it, we take comfort in not knowing how bad things will get. We are okay with being in the dark because it leaves us room to imagine that it won’t be that bad, that this season will be quick and painless, or that the pain won’t be as bad if we don’t have time to overthink or become anxious about it.

There is a story in the Bible that is probably the most popular behind the death and resurrection of Jesus and that is David and Goliath. Now, if you’ve heard this story before don’t tune this part out because as a pastor’s kid, I could recite this story backwards, yet God continues to astound me by the living aspect of His word. As the story goes, there is a war and with any great war story there are the good guys who deserve the win because they are just so awesome, the Israelites, and the bad guys who are the worst and need to be stopped at all costs, the Philistines. I’m sure you know how the rest of the story plays out as you have David the little shepherd boy protagonist and Goliath, the 9 foot tall behemoth of a man who would like nothing more than to squish David like a bug. But before we get to the big battle scene, I want to take a moment to look at how the other soldiers felt going into the war, before Goliath showed up.

Now I’ve spent a lot of time with some solid Christian guys,and while they are some of the most loyal and kind people I know, I have found an interesting tendency among each and every one of them. When they get in a group of other guys, they start to build each other, and themselves, up about their ability and strength. This may be one guy talking about how he is just so angry at a coworker that he could punch him into tomorrow and then his buddies begin to hype him up being like “Yeah bro you got this, you could totally kick his butt”. I fully believe this is how the Israelites acted around each other while they were on their way to battle. Hyping one another up about how easy it will be to defeat the Philistines and how God will hand them the victory. It is so easy for us in these moments, surrounded by people we know, to have all the confidence in the world to defeat what is ahead.

"It is so easy for us in these moments, surrounded by people we know, to have all the confidence in the world to defeat what is ahead."

But what about that moment when they saw Goliath for the first time? Do you think they had the same level of confidence as when it was just them and the boys? I imagine them, in front of their tents because they could probably see Goliath clearly all the way from across the battlefield, standing there, color drained from their faces, jaws almost in the dirt, saying “this can’t be real. I have to fight THAT guy?!” The once solid, “I’m the king of the world” attitude was now fleeting into a “how could we possibly do this”. Then to make matters worse, Goliath comes to the middle of the field, stands there in all of his might, fully aware and confident in his abilities and challenges that whoever can kill him can take the entire Philistine army as their slaves but if he were to emerge victorious, his army would take the Israelites as their slaves. Not only did he challenge this, but he mentions that he will defy the Israelite army, God’s chosen people, and therefore defy God. This continued for 40 days. Twice a day. Every morning and night, Goliath would go outside and challenge the strength of the Israelites and in turn the strength of God. If I’m the Israelites, that’s a lot of constant reminder that I am weak and powerless and can definitely drain my confidence.

Now is when our hero David enters the scene. In comparison to Goliath, David is smaller, younger, and weaker. Yet David is seen as the more confident one not because of any Earthly thing he was given, but because he knew that his God was bigger than the battle ahead. David walked into the battle with no confidence in himself but with all confidence in God and God’s abilities. And sure enough, he overpowered Goliath in the form of a small stone and won for all of Israel.

I think we tend to limit God to a 9 foot giant, we limit his ability because we can’t fully comprehend it. And because we can’t fully understand it, we don’t think it can possibly happen. No matter how many times over and over again that God has proven himself to be faithful and capable way beyond our own understandings.

“And because we can’t fully understand it, we don’t think it can possibly happen. No matter how many times over and over again that God has proven himself to be faithful and capable way beyond our own understandings"

Our fault isn’t in our inability to understand because even in Galatians, Paul tells us that God does not come from mere human reasoning so it is naive for us to believe that we will be able to completely understand something that didn’t come from us. Our fault is in our lack of trust that God is able. When we face hardships in our life that leave us feeling broken and helpless, we become so focused on our weakness that we fail to remember that the God who parted the Red Sea for Moses, who brought fire down for Elijah, and who gave David the strength to kill Goliath, lives in each and every one of us. The same God has the same magnitude because he is constant and never changing. We just have to trust that he will move in that way again. God has proven himself to be faithful, there is an entire book full of examples of every time God said he would show up and did. The true test of faith isn’t in the darkness when the possibilities are endless, it’s when you are face to face with the 9 foot giant who is calling you and your God out and instead of shrinking back into your tent, you stand up and meet them on the battlefield. Not because you are able to win on your own, but because you know who stands behind you.