Read I Samuel 16:11, 17: 33-34
Think ahead with me to I Samuel 17. Here is David, standing by Saul, as a giant lumbers across the distant landscape.
Saul says, “Who are you?”
“I’m David.”
Saul says, “Where have you been?”
“With my father’s sheep.”
Then Saul says, “You can’t fight the giant. You’re just a kid.”
Though only a teenager, David responds without hesitation.
1 Samuel 17:34-35 NIV – But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
Where did David get such courage? He had learned it all alone before God. What kind of a man is this David? A man of reality. He’s a man who remained responsible when nobody was looking.
Goliath was no big deal. Why? Because David had been killing lions and bears while nobody was around. He had been facing reality long before he squared off against Goliath. David may have lived centuries ago, but the things we can learn from him are as current as this morning’s sunrise. Two stand out in my mind.
First, it’s in the little things and in the lonely places that we prove ourselves capable of the big things. If you want to be a person with a large vision, you must cultivate the habit of doing little things well. That’s when God puts iron in your bones, or rebar in your concrete.
Second, when God develops our inner qualities, He’s never in a hurry. When God develops character, He works on it through a lifetime. He is not in a rush.
BOTTOM LINE:
It is in the schoolroom of solitude and obscurity that we learn to become men and women of God. It is from the schoolmasters of monotony and reality that we learn to “king it.” That’s how we become – like David – men and women who thrive while seeking after God’s heart.
NEXT UP: David Humbly Thriving After A Divine Appointment