Editor’s note: What are you thinking about? Do you feel bossed around by your mind? Tame Your Thoughts Online Bible Study with Max Lucado begins September 22nd and it’s for all of us! Sign up today and learn to do battle taking every thought captive and tame your thoughts!
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Giant-sized challenges are won not with bigger biceps but with better thought management. Your mindset is your most valuable tool. It’s time to screen thoughts, interrupt thoughts, extract and replace thoughts. And I know just the fellow to help us.
God called him “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22).
Such words were never said about Abraham or Moses. Paul was called an apostle; John was called “beloved” — but never “a man after God’s own heart.” God crowned only David with this title. Why?
What was unique about this son of Jesse? A case can be made for this answer. He made this six-word motto his mantra:
The battle belongs to the Lord. — 1 Samuel 17:47 MEV
The Battle
David rose to fame in the Valley of Elah where he went mano a mano with a Bronze Age version of Bobby Jackson. Goliath stood nine feet nine inches tall, wore 126 pounds of armor, and twice daily double-dog dared the Israelites to come out of hiding and fight him.
He was the MVP (Most Valuable Philistine). The Philistines were mighty warriors with, at their zenith, thirty thousand iron chariots and six thousand horsemen. Imagine a Nazi platoon large enough to fill half a dozen football fields. The commandant is behemoth Goliath who boasts:
This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other. — 1 Samuel 17:10
For forty days, he awoke the Hebrews in the morning and sent them scurrying into their tents at night. On eighty separate occasions the Hebrew soldiers heard his voice, turned their heads, and tucked their tails.
It was an utter beatdown. The Philistines were the middle school bullies, and the Hebrew soldiers were pale-faced first graders. Goliath emasculated them, intimidated them, demoralized them. Bait-shop earthworms have healthier self-esteem.
- By the time David arrived, sent from home with food for his brothers, the army was shivering like a litter of wet puppies.
David was the youngest in his family — a teenager. Too young to go to battle. Too young to join the army. At least that is what others thought. Not David. The ruddy-skinned and skinny son of Jesse showed up and piped up:
What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? — 1 Samuel 17:26
The Bible records thousands of David’s words. His conversations, his meditations. We know more about David than about any other person in holy Scripture. Sixty-six chapters are dedicated to his story, more square inches than any biography other than Jesus’. The New Testament mentions his name fifty-nine times! And, of all his recorded words, these are the first. And, of all the words, these are arguably the best.
He calls Goliath an “uncircumcised Philistine.” Or in modern parlance, a filthy, rotten scoundrel. Politically correct? No. Spiritually sensitive? No doubt. He marched into the battle keenly aware of the “armies of the living God.”
He sees a battle; he thinks of God.
He sees the Philistines; he thinks of God’s armies.
And you? How does David’s reaction to the enemy compare with yours?
I recently spent the better part of an hour reciting to my wife the woes of my life. I felt overwhelmed by commitments and deadlines. I’d been sick. There was tension at the church between some of my friends. A married couple whom I had counseled chose to ignore my advice and file for divorce. And then, to top it off, I received a manuscript from my editor that was bloody with red ink. I looked for a chapter that didn’t need a rewrite. There wasn’t one.
Groan.
After several minutes of my ranting, Denalyn asked me: “Is God in this anywhere?”
(I hate it when she does that.) I wasn’t thinking about God. I wasn’t consulting God. I wasn’t turning to God. I wasn’t talking about God.
David, on the other hand, couldn’t stop talking about him. Every time he opened his mouth, he mentioned God.
He told the men:
Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? — 1 Samuel 17:26
He told King Saul:
The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. — 1 Samuel 17:37
And he told Goliath:
You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a shield, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have reviled. This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand. And I will strike you down and cut off your head. Then I will give the corpses of the Philistine camp this day to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And then all this assembly will know that it is not by sword and spear that the Lord saves. For the battle belongs to the Lord, and He will give you into our hands. — 1 Samuel 17:45–47 MEV
Saul offered David his armor. David refused. He was more comfortable with his sling and creek-bed stones. So, while Goliath was sharpening his sword, David was selecting the rocks. The kind that fit snuggly in the pouch of the sling. The kind that whistle like missiles through the air. The kind that cracks open the skull of a hardheaded giant like Goliath.
- No one placed a bet on David. No one. Not the brothers. Not his kinsmen. Not Saul the king. No one gave David a fighting chance.
They did not know what we know. This battle wasn’t David’s to fight; it was God’s.
Remember his resolve?
The battle belongs to the Lord. — 1 Samuel 17:47 MEV
Brawny Goliath scoffed at scrawny David.
Do you think that I am just a dog? Can you knock me down with a little stick? — v. 43 Easy
David loaded a stone. Goliath raised his sword. The shepherd swung. The giant smirked. The rock flew. The skull cracked and the duel ended as quickly as it began. Goliath collapsed. David guillotined him. The Israelites, suddenly infused with courage, overtook their enemies, and a new day began for Israel.
All because David knew this: The battle belonged to the Lord. What about you?
Excerpted with permission from Tame Your Thoughts by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.
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Your Turn
What are you facing today? What giant threatens you? Remember this: The battle belonged to the Lord. Remind yourself over and over again: The battle belonged to the Lord! Join us September 22nd for the Tame Your Thoughts Online Bible Study with Max Lucado. Sign up today! ~ Devotionals Daily