Today's Devotional Thought
April 18, 2013 by Rachel Piferi
Lions & Bears
Over the weekend, we attended a Living Proof Live with Beth Moore Conference in Greensboro, NC. The conference was absolutely amazing with rich teaching and soul-stirring praise and worship. I always say that conferences like that give us a little glimpse of what heaven will be like one day. With believers just praising God and enjoying Christian fellowship for all of eternity!
Her teaching was so full of heart-gripping truths that just penetrated my soul. I have been processing several of those truths all week and one of them I want to share with you today.
Beth taught from several places in the Bible. And one reference she drew from was in I Samuel 17 where David is petitioning Saul to let him fight Goliath. In this familiar story, the Philistine giant is taunting Israel and David steps forward to fight him in defense of Israel and in the name of God. His offer is met with disbelief from Saul since David is small and young and inexperienced.
But David continues to make his plea that he can fight the Philistine and says to Saul,
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. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 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" (v. 34-37).
As she unpacked the passage, Beth had us pause on the concept that David had fought lions and bears alone in his daily walk which prepared him to fight Goliath in front of everyone. You see, our private battles {fought alone with God when no one is watching} make us strong and prepared to fight when everyone is watching.
Powerful.
And if you go even further here, you see that the victories that David experienced in those private battles gave him the confidence for the battle of his life with Goliath. And David carries the faithfulness of the Lord that he experienced in the private moments into the public one.
Are you fighting any lions or bears in private right now? Sweet sister, fight faithfully and fight in confidence that the Lord is fighting with you. Even if no one else sees you fighting those bears and lions, trust that God sees and God is strengthening you and preparing you through these battles. And sweet sisters, trust that the strength we gain from our private battles fought with the Lord in the dark will be used mightily in the light.
I just love David's confidence in his battle with Goliath. And it is a confidence that came from his experience with the Lord when no one was watching. I pray you have that same confidence and I pray that you wrestle those lions and bears in your life with the Lord's help. And know that the Lord who rescued you in those private battles will rescue you again in whatever you facing today.
Have a wonderful Thursday sweet friends and keep on fighting the good fight! May the Lord bless you today!
December