Can you imagine? David, just a shepherd boy, singing and playing his instrument while watching his father’s sheep. When out of the corner of his eye, he sees a lion jump from his hidden position to attack the sheep. By himself, David jumped and ran toward the lion, killing him and saving the sheep.
Now, can you imagine that instead of celebrating his great victory, David instead sits down to say, “Why God? Why did you allow that lion to attack us? I’m no good at this. This is too hard. I guess I shouldn’t be a shepherd. You must not want me to do this.”
Let’s take it even further. David is again worshipping the Lord and watching the sheep graze when out of the shadow comes a bear that is running full force straight at them. Alone again, David kills the bear and saves himself and the sheep.
David could have thought, “Why does this keep happening. I’ve already had to fight a battle. God must not be with me. What am I doing wrong? Why do I always have problems?”
When faced with another problem or another battle, the temptation is to take the victim mentality even if you’ve won the previous battles and think you have a setback. If your self-talk sounds something like, “Just when things were going good, this had to happen.” Or, “Why does this always happen to me?” Then you’ve got to shake yourself loose from the grip of self-pity.
Like David, your past battles had a purpose. They worked for you to enlarge you. The fight you are facing right now is not a setback. It is an opportunity. You can take even more territory. God has more for you!
You can be like David doing a task that seems menial and mundane. You may think this is all there is. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s not. God has opened an opportunity to enlarge you. But taking territory and enlarging is a battle. Anyone who has tried to grow a company understands that enlarging is hard work. It’s an uphill battle with many obstacles. And at every place of enlargement comes a more significant, more intimidating struggle.
David was just delivering bread and cheese when he heard Goliath vomiting his threats and mockings. At that moment, David could have thought, “not again…,” “not another fight.” I’ve already had to deal with a lion and a bear. What more does God want from me?” Thank God he didn’t think those things. Instead, he said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God?” After finding out the reward, David’s immediate reaction was to run toward the battle. Ours should be the same.
Revelation 1:6 says we are kings and priests unto God. We are overcomers, not down and outers. We advance the kingdom of God and take territory. Like David, we don’t shrink back. (Hebrews 10:38) That day, David was positioned for the palace. The previous battles prepared him for this giant. Just like before, David took that giant down and cut his head off. And saints, so can we!
We are not living in a setback moment. It’s time to advance. It’s time to take new and larger territory and slay our giants! Don’t be intimidated. Don’t listen to the lies and tricks of the enemy. Think from the proper perspective. Take every negative and defeatest thought captive. Deny fear any entrance and march forward in faith. Your victory will position you for your greater purpose and will bring deliverance to you and all those around you.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Jaime Luce
Featured Image by Astrid Schaffner from Pixabay
