Reflection Sunday - 5 Tactics to Slaying Giants

                                                                                                                          Photo by CLIPARTMAX

At church, we are going through the book of 1 Samuel, and today we talked about David and Goliath.  A favorite story of kids everywhere. 

When Dalton was  little, he had a Super Heroes Bible.  I'm sure no one is surprised by this!  (He may still have it.)  It highlighted some heroes in the bible and their characteristics

Some of David's characteristics are: obedience, humility, patience, courage and faith

We can see these 6 tactics when David faces the great Goliath.        

    - Obedience: David obeyed his father who sent him to take food to his brothers on the battle field.  He obeyed GOD when he told him to fight Goliath

    - Humility: Samuel had already told David and his father, Jesse, that David would be the next king of Israel.  It would have been so easy for him to become a cocky, prideful teenager.  But he was honorable and obedience; which is probably one of the reasons GOD chose him. A man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) 

Luke 12:48 says,   "From everyone who has been given much will be demanded, and from the one who's been entrusted with much, much more will be asked(This just happens to be one of Dalton's favorite verses, plus it was somewhat reference to in Spider-man.)  Because David was such good shepard, GOD trusted him with bigger and better things.

       -Patience: The kid was a shepard, and at night on top of that.  It may have been a ,little more exciting than watching paint dry.

I think its interesting  The GOD likens  HIMSELF to a shepard.  Sheep are suppose to be one the dumbest and most vulnerable animals alive.  David is very patient with his sheep, just as GOD is patient with us.

      -Courage: It is believed that Goliath was between 8 and 12 ft tall.  My Daddy was 6"7' tall, Everyone at school thought he was a giant.  So, I couldn't imagine being a youth (some people think he was under 5" tall) and facing someone that tall.  Hearing stories of how others who were taller and older than him, may have made David quake in his  boots.  Then King Saul placed his armor on David; which was too big and heavy for him.    He knew that unless he followed GOD's command, then he would have enough courage and wouldn't be able to defeat Goliath.

       -Faith: Not only did David have to obey GOD, but he also had to have faith that He would take care of him.  I've come to the conclusion that faith is either really simple or really difficult.    Hebrew 11:1 " "Faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence pf things unseen.  Some people only believe in things they can see.  In John 20:29 JESUS tells Thomas; "Because you have seen me, You have believed.  Blessed are those who have not seen but still believe."  Without faith, we can't even take our next breath.  David had to have faith in order to gather up the courage to fight Goliath.

We all have giants and the same 5 tactics can apply to slaying our own giants:

1.  We  have to be obedient to what GOD tells us about our giants. 

2.  We have to be humble enough to say that we can't fight our giants without GOD

3.   We have to have patience to wait on GOD to tell and show us how to fight our giants. 

4.   It takes courage to fight our giants.  Sometimes it takes just as much courage (if not more) to NOT fight our giants, because GOD wants us to learn to cope with our giants, not slay them.  They are  intended to be part of our testimony .

And finally

5. We have to have faith to slay our 9 ft giants.  We have to know that GOD is with us, even when we can't see evidenced of it.

How do you slay your giants?  Comment below, please!

Mental Health Monday - King David's Sadness Over a Lost Child

 

Photo by Pixabay

Depression and mental illness are not new concepts.  There are several examples of people in the bible who dealt with these issues.  David gives us an example:

David's life was one filled with great joy and deep sorrows.  The boy who killed Golalith was the same man who had had an affair with Bathsheba, impregnated her, and then had her husband killed so no one would know that he wasn't the child's father.

They married and the baby was born sick because of their sin.    When he was told that his son was sick, David prayed for the baby, fasted, and lay face down on his bedroom floor.  He lay there for 7 days.

When the baby died, the servants were afraid to tell the king because they didn't know how he would react.  

 But surprisingly, he got up and showered, worshiped God, and then ate.  I find it interesting that after the baby died, David stopped grieving.  Most people grieve when someone dies but rejoices when a baby is born.

However, Ecclesiastes 7 says:

"...The day someone dies is better than the day they were born."

It wasn't that David was happy that the baby died - I don't think he was.  I think he knew there was nothing else he could do.  His next mission was to comfort Bathsheba. 

One of the things about mental illness - mine at least - is no one can understand it.  You can't explain it.  It can cause people to act in a way that is totally opposite to how society expects them to act.

There is a condition called the Pseudobulbar affect (PBA).   "It is a condition that's characterized by episodes of uncontrollable or  inappropriate laughing or crying."  Mayo Clinic

I got in trouble more than once for laughing in church.  Someone would say something funny, and the congregation would laugh and then settle down.  Well, every time I would think of what was said and start bellowing again.

Now, when I laugh, I can laugh until I cry.  Now, I'm not talking about a normal till tears stream down your face pretty cry.  This is that ugly laugh that you laugh until you cry; where you go from being happy to truly upset in a matter of minutes and you have no idea why.  This leaves whoever you're talking with stunned and unsure of what happened.

I think that was kind of what David was going through.    Maybe he couldn't explain how he was acting; except that at the moment; it just made sense to him.