[S] 1 Samuel 17:28,33-40 -- 28Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger burned against David and he said, "Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle."
33Then Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth."
34But David said to Saul, "Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock,
35I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.
36"Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God."
37And David said, "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine " And Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you."
38Then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor.
39David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." And David took them off.
40He took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine.
[O] David was not tending a large number of sheep but a few (v.28), however, he was faithfully shepherding them even to the point of defending them from lions and bears. He was faithfully shepherding them with a calling from God and he knew God would deliver him from these animals attacks (v.37). Based on this small steps of faithfulness he was also able to envision tackling the giant task in front of him. The same principle holds true just like the same principle of 1+1=2 applies much more complex mathematical computations. His vision of achieving this tall task was balanced by his practical execution because he only chose "tested" (v.39) and proven methods with his own customized (v.40) tools. Once he was ready with these, he approached the Goliath.
Also, when David could not withhold his anger against Goliath who taunted the armies of God, it seems he was all alone and not only that others including his older brothers are looking down on his anger for God and they discouraged him strongly. However he overcame these discouragements not by debating or arguing but by proclaiming how he used to lean on God for protection against the wild beasts as he was shepherding his father's sheep. He had such a confidence in how he had already experienced God not only he was unmoved by these discouraging words, but he was not afraid of Goliath either
[A] Be faithful in small things for God, and He will use me for big things for God. God's ways are counter-intuitive to the world's standards and I must not rely on the world's standards too much instead of God's ways. Trust in God's ways which will be used to glorify Him in His own special ways.
[P] Dear God, even though it is scary to let go of the world's standards that I've been educated to follow faithfully and to rely on Your ways which, frankly, seem a bit off the wall and impractical, grant me the confidence in You to obey them because that's the way You will reveal yourself in me. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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