Friday, July 14, 2017

It's Not Yours

Good morning! I hope that you and yours are doing well this morning.
     I was reading from my daily devotional book, Power for Today and one scripture captured my attention, and that is 1 Samuel 17:47. That scripture packs a wallop! But to get the fullness of this verse we need to read a bit more of it to see the story of David and Goliath as it unfolds.
David and Goliath
17 Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.
And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him. Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
12 Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days of Saul. 13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul. 15 But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
16 And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening.
17 Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves and run to your brothers at the camp. 18 And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare and bring back news of them.” 19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20 So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. 21 For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. 22 And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. 23 Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them. 24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. 25 So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.”
26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
27 And the people answered him in this manner, saying, “So shall it be done for the man who kills him.”
28 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”
29 And David said, “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?” 30 Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing, and these people answered him as the first ones did.
31 Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him. 32 Then David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, 35 I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 Moreover, 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 the Lord be with you!”
38 So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off.
40 Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine. 41 So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him. 42 And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. 43 So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
You know how the rest of the story goes so I won't dwell on it except to say, "Remember, the battle is not yours, it is the Lord’s!" You see, when David slew the bear and when he slew the lion, he did not know it then, but he was in "God's training camp." God knew where and what He was leading David to. Uhm hmm-m, so, that means that if He put you in a situation that is bordering on the impossible, don't despair because He knew what He was doing when He placed you there. You just toughen up and take your training for whatever is coming up in your life on down the road. He knows where you are at all times, and He knows how things fare with you, I  told you on yesterday that everything that pertains to you is in the Lord’s hands. You, my friend, just need to acknowledge Him and give all of your problems, concerns, etc. over to Him. He will make a way for you and that sometimes entails moving a person that you thought of as a mountain. How do I know, I have been tried so many times, folks, that my trials have become my testimony. And I have no shame when I acknowledge Him as my God, my Father, and my Friend. I have witnessed His fighting many battles for me, and He always wins.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma L. Stepping On Jones

P. S. - One last thing, have you done as much praying about "the situation" as you have worrying? I'll repeat that just in case you glossed over that major point. Have you done as much praying about the situation as you have worrying? If you have, then your worrying ought to cease as you learn to use the weapon of "ultimately" in your worries and trials. In other words, you ought to say to yourself, "God's got this!" Afterall, the battle is not yours...

Some of y'all still did not get the message that I want to leave with you. So let me say it another way. If you have children and they come to you with the problem of adversaries, you handle it don't you? Yes, you do and you are not long about it. Well, didn't God tell you that you are His child and that He cares for you and that if you being earthly know how to give to your children what they ask of you in the way of need that He would do more so? (Matthew 7:11 KJV) And don't you know that by His very nature of not being able to lie (Titus 1:2 KJV) that He has you covered? Oh, you already know that, do you? Then why do you persist in picking your problems back up and worrying about them? Take another step out on faith each day as you read your Bible and talk with the Lord. I declare you will see Him move mountains in your life. And then you will be just like me, shouting His love for mankind from the "Tallest Mountain in Your World." What does that last phrase mean? It means simply that you will tell the story of His goodness and love to anybody who will listen and you will tell it so much that you will become known as a person of strong faith.




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