KEY VERSE
“Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.’”
1 SAMUEL 17:36
Read 1 Samuel 17
I’ve worked out over five and a half decades as a believer, that God has two speeds: slow and suddenly and even in the suddenly, He takes His time! He obviously uses chronological time (chronos) but there are strategic times in a believer’s life where God accelerates His purposes. We call these set times, opportune times of action (kairos).
David had been anointed by Samuel to be the next king but had bided his time in the field just doing what seemed to be the day-to-day mundane stuff but, it would seem, leaning into God as every day went by. You see, David was just like you - chosen for a purpose. Jeremiah would say it this way, “‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5). And the great apostle Paul would say it this way, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4). David was chosen not because he could sing and dance (both of which he could do!); he was chosen to fight. God had a Kingdom and a nation to establish before all the earth. He had battles to win and He chose this ruddy-complexioned shepherd boy long before his birth to be that man. This boy who would kill a lion and a bear with nothing but a rag and a rock, was now about to step into his kairos moment. This boy who had fallen in love with his God in the solitude of the fields. This boy who had come to know a God with whom nothing is impossible. This boy who had not despised the day of small or insignificant things and had seen every day and every circumstance, no matter how mundane, as an opportunity to move closer to His God. And when his moment arrived, despite having no armour on the outside, inside he had a steely resolve that would say, “My God can do anything.”
Waiting on God is an interesting subject, one which I’m sure fills many-a-shelf in the bookstore. Can I remind us that when Jesus rebuked His disciples for not being able to deliver the demon-possessed boy and they enquired why they couldn’t, He said, “this kind doesn’t come out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). He wasn’t insinuating an immediate fast when we run up against this type of demon. Rather, He was promoting a lifestyle; one of growing while in the waiting. This was David’s secret. It was Jesus’ secret. Why not make it yours from today?
Author: Phil Emerson - Lead Pastor, Emmanuel Church, Lurgan, Northern Ireland