The Brilliance of God’s Grace / Greg Laurie

The Brilliance of God’s Grace

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. (Ephesians 2:1 NLT)

I am amazed by anyone who actually believes that people are basically good. I have to say that in many ways, they have more faith than I do to believe that.

As I see the depravity that humanity is capable of, I become more convinced of the fact that people are not basically good. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. And that is clearly what the Scriptures teach.

Ephesians 2:1-2 says, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God” (NLT).

In these verses, the apostle Paul paints a very dark background so that we might better appreciate the brilliance of God’s grace. Just as jewelers display beautiful gems on dark velvet so we can appreciate their splendor, so God, against a very dark background, shows us how bad we once were. But He also shows us what He can make us into.

It is this balanced understanding of humanity that gives the Christian the only logical and satisfactory answer as to why the world is the way it is.

Make no mistake about it: We are sinners to the core. We don’t have to teach our children how to sin. It comes quite naturally to them, just as it came naturally to us. We aren’t sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. It is in our nature.

Maybe you’ve heard the story of the scorpion and the turtle. The scorpion was thinking about how to cross a river when he saw a turtle sunning himself on the riverbank. So, he went over to the turtle and said, “My dear sir, I was wondering if you might give me a lift across this river here.”

“If I were to do that,” the turtle replied, “I think that you might sting me.”

 “What would be the logic in doing such a thing?” the scorpion asked.

“Well, you have a point there,” said the turtle. “Climb on.” So, the scorpion climbed on the turtle’s back, and they started making their way across the river. But suddenly the scorpion lifted his tail and stuck it into the turtle, giving him everything that he had.

The turtle, knowing that they were both about to die, said, “I have just one question: Why did you sting me? Where is the logic in that?”

“There is no logic in it, dear turtle,” the scorpion said. “It is just my nature.”

We sin because it’s our nature. We do what we do because we are wired to do it. It’s the way we are built. It is not that we are products of our environment, although that can affect us to some degree. We can be in a perfect environment or a horrible environment and still sin.

It is just our nature. Yet God shows us what we can become by His grace.

 

Your Superpower / Greg Laurie

 Your Superpower

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 1:19-20 NLT)

Years ago, when I was visiting Israel, I plugged in my hair dryer without using a voltage converter. The dryer was about twice as powerful as it normally was, and I really liked that. But then I looked in the mirror and saw flames coming out of the dryer. It literally melted.

Nowadays, we can buy appliances that have dual voltage settings—we can switch them to safely accept either 110 or 220 volts. But back then, without the use of a converter, there was too much power for my hair dryer.

Sometimes, we wonder whether we have enough power to satisfy the demands in our lives. If you’re a Christian, then you have more power than you ever will need. It’s like wondering whether you have enough power to turn on your lights when you have an entire nuclear plant exclusively powering your home.

In the same way, we can be confident that God will provide all the power that we’ll ever need. 

Writing to the Christians in Ephesus, Paul said, “I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance” (Ephesians 1:18 NLT).

Paul went on to say, “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms” (verses 19–20 NLT).

He was saying, “I want you to check your balance. I want you to realize how much power is available to you.” The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is certainly adequate to help us deal with the challenges, trials, temptations, and opportunities that we are going to encounter in life. Just as the cross was a display of God’s love, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a display of His power for us.

All the power necessary is available to us to live the Christian life. What we need to do is simply plug in.

Maybe you’ve thought, “It is so much easier to just go with the flow. I might as well do what everybody else does.”

No, you can go a different direction. It takes a live fish to go upstream. If you’ve ever watched salmon swim upstream, then you know these persistent fish swim with all their effort. Not all of them make it, but some do.

Living the Christian life takes determination and, more importantly, yielding to the power that is available to you. You can make it if you want to. You can be more than a conqueror because of what Jesus Christ has done for you.

The question is this: Are you going to plug in to God’s power and apply yourself? It takes commitment on a daily basis. And the moment you begin to relax, the moment you stop seeking to move forward spiritually, will be the moment your downward trend will begin.

A Different Attitude / Greg Laurie

A Different Attitude

But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land. (Numbers 14:24 NLT)

Through forty-five years of wilderness wandering, Caleb believed God and clung to His promise. God had promised Caleb that he would enter the Promised Land. But in the meantime, he had to put up with all the whining, griping, and complaining of his fellow Israelites.

Caleb was there when they complained about the manna God had provided and cried out for meat like they had in Egypt. He was there when they rebelled against Moses. And he had to put up with all of it.

Yet Caleb believed that God was going to keep His promise. He was able to fully follow the Lord and finish well because he took God at His word. 

And after years of waiting and resisting the temptation to follow the crowd, Caleb was ready to receive his award. At eighty-five years old, he said, “I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then” (Joshua 14:11 NLT).

Some of the young guys of Israel probably laughed at this point. What was this eighty-five-year-old man going to be doing? But Caleb was still strong. Though his outward man was perishing, his inward man had been renewed day by day (see 2 Corinthians 4:16).

He had maintained a first-love relationship with God, and as a result, he maintained his first strength. We see the practical results of this inner strength demonstrated in Joshua 15: “So Caleb was given the town of Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), which had been named after Anak’s ancestor. Caleb drove out the three groups of Anakites—the descendants of Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the sons of Anak” (verses 13–14 NLT).

Here we discover that of all the people who received an inheritance in the land, only Caleb completely drove out the enemy. And he faced some of the most formidable foes in the entire land.

Caleb had specifically asked for Hebron. This was no garden spot. It was a rugged, treacherous area with a powerful enemy stronghold guarded by the strongest men. This was no easy duty for Caleb.

Being an older guy, he could have asked for a nice, comfortable plot of land where there were no enemies to drive out. But he asked for one of the toughest assignments. And then he drove out his enemies.

Maybe, just maybe, there was another motive for Caleb’s wanting Hebron. The Bible tells us that in Hebron, God spoke with Abraham face to face and gave him the promise of the land in the first place.

The very name Hebron is descriptive, meaning “fellowship, love, and communion.” This was the place that Caleb longed for—and ultimately received. While others longed for Egypt, Caleb longed for Hebron. While others looked back, Caleb looked forward. While others wanted to please themselves, Caleb wanted to please God. He stood on the promises of God.

We need to do the same. We need to remember that God will keep His promises. 

Walking in the Dark / Greg Laurie

 Walking in the Dark

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 NLT)

There’s a time for running and a time for walking. And most of the time, it’s a lot easier to walk than to run.

The Bible uses the metaphor of walking as well as running, and in the Book of Isaiah, we find this promise: “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31 NLT).

In the race of life, the objective is not to run fast; it’s to run long. The objective is to cross the finish line. The apostle Paul wrote, “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:14 NLT).

Then Paul added this thought: “Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things” (verse 15 NLT). In other words, he was saying that if we want to grow spiritually, then we need to learn how to pace ourselves in the race of life.

Some people seem to have a yo-yo type of relationship with God. Either they are fully passionate, or they are half-hearted. One day they are so excited about Jesus that it borders on being obnoxious. But another day they’re depressed and struggling with sin.

We need to learn how to pace ourselves. We need to learn how to find consistency.

That is why, after his sin with Bathsheba, King David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 NLT). David was saying, “Help me to be consistent.” And that is what we need in our lives too.

When we first come to Christ, there is initial excitement. There’s joy and peace. That is not to suggest those things go away. But it is to say that sooner or later, we must learn that the Christian life is a walk of faith and not of feeling. Feelings will come and go. Therefore, we need to learn to walk by faith.

That is what a man named Enoch did. In fact, the Bible tells us that he walked with God for 300 years. He walked with God when most others would not. And his story teaches us how we can not only win the race of life but also keep going, even when things get hard.

Enoch lived during the time before God’s judgment on the earth by the Flood. The Bible says of this time, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” (Genesis 6:5 NLT).

People were extremely wicked—so wicked, in fact, that God said He was sorry that He had ever made them. Yet in the midst of this dark world was someone who walked with God. Enoch showed us that it is possible to live a godly life in an ungodly world.

A Ray of Light / Greg Laurie

 A Ray of Light

But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. (Nehemiah 9:17 NLT)

Even in the mess Samson had made of his life, even though the Philistines had captured him and blinded him, there was a little ray of light.

The Bible says, “But before long, his hair began to grow back” (Judges 16:22 NLT). What is this verse saying? It’s telling us there is hope, even if we have failed.

As Samson’s hair began to grow, his strength returned. However, Samson’s strength was not in his long hair. Rather, it was in his commitment to God. His hair symbolized a vow he had taken as a Nazirite. And his hair was returning.

One night when the Philistines were having a drunken feast to their false god, someone came up with the idea of dragging out the sightless Samson to make fun of him. So, they brought Samson from the prison into a big party where Philistines were engaging in debauchery and the worship of a false god.

Meanwhile, Samson said to the young servant who was leading him, “Place my hands against the pillars that hold up the temple. I want to rest against them” (verse 26 NLT). So, the servant did as Samson had asked.

Then the Bible tells us, “Samson prayed to the Lord, ‘Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.’ Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, he prayed, ‘Let me die with the Philistines’ ” (verse 28–30 NLT).

Samson pushed with all his might, and the temple where they were came crashing down. As it turned out, Samson killed more Philistines that day than he had during his entire life of fighting them on the battlefield.

In contrast to the life of Samson, the Bible tells the story of another young man who experienced sexual temptation. His name was Joseph. The Bible says he was good-looking and well-built, and his employer’s wife constantly tried to seduce him. She also was about as subtle as Delilah.

In fact, she said, “Come and sleep with me” (Genesis 39:7 NLT).

But Joseph resisted her, saying, “My master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God” (verses 8–9 NLT).

But one day, she decided to do whatever she could to make this happen. She sent her servants outside, grabbed Jospeh, and pulled him down on the bed. So, Joseph did what any smart person should do in a similar circumstance. He ran. And he ran fast.

That is what we need to do when we’re faced with temptation.

But even when we mess up, even when we have failed, God gives second chances. Do you need a second chance? Do you want to get up and try again? God can give you a second chance today.

The Danger of Flirting with Sin / Greg Laurie

The Danger of Flirting with Sin

Then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him. (Judges 16:20 NLT)

Talk about sleeping with the enemy. Samson fell asleep in Delilah’s lap and took a one-way trip to the barbershop, not realizing what he was doing.

Delilah had been hired by the Philistines to discover the secret of Samson’s strength. But so far, she was getting nowhere. So she said, “How can you tell me, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t share your secrets with me? You’ve made fun of me three times now, and you still haven’t told me what makes you so strong!” (Judges 16:15NLT).

In other words, “If you love me, you’ll do this.”

Anyone who would ask you to prove your love to them by compromising your spiritual principles is not someone you should be involved with. That is not love. And Samson should have known that.

But after a while, Delilah was wearing him down. The Bible says that “she tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it” (verse 16 NLT).

Finally, Samson told her the secret of his strength, and this time when the Philistines came to capture him, he couldn’t free himself.

This brings us to one of the most tragic statements in the Bible: “But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him” (verse 20 NLT). Samson had not only lost touch with what was going on, but he had also lost touch with God.

The passage goes on to say, “So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison” (verse 21 NLT).

If this were a story about running a race, Samson would have just fallen—and fallen hard. In fact, it would appear that he wasn’t ever going to get back up again. Ironically, Samson once had the ability to win the race, but he was down. And it looked as though he was out of the race.

This is so typical of someone who has been trapped in sin. Everyone else knows what is happening, but they don’t know. They refuse to listen to the warnings, and they continue down a path of destruction. And then one day they wake up and realize how far they’ve gone.

Sin blinds us, and we do completely irrational things. That’s what happened to Samson. Sin blinded him.

Sin finds us. There may be an initial excitement that comes with crossing the line in a certain area. But we need to be aware that eventually, our sin will find us out (see Numbers 32:23).

Lastly, sin will grind us. Ultimately, we will pay the miserable price for our sin, whether it’s a broken marriage or a betrayed trust or a damaged witness and reputation.

Sometimes we try to overspiritualize things that have an obvious solution. Sometimes, the way of escape is as simple as walking out the door. Samson flirted with sin, and it destroyed him. We need to take practical steps to resist temptation.

 

Empty Promises / Greg Laurie

 Empty Promises

Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire? (Proverbs 6:27 NLT)

The Philistines were desperate. Samson had been killing them for fun and sport, and they had to bring him down.

So, they bribed Delilah, a woman he was in love with, to find out the secret of his strength. No doubt Delilah was an attractive woman, because for temptation to work, it must be alluring.

Samson once again got involved with the wrong person. First there was the Philistine woman. Then there was the prostitute. And then there was Delilah, who approached him with her enticements and temptations, promising so much.

That’s what sin is like. It promises life, but it brings death. It promises fulfillment, but it brings a greater emptiness. Satan had found Samson’s weakness, and he was ready to exploit it.

It’s important for us to understand that sin doesn’t take anyone against their will. We might hear someone say, “I didn’t want to do this, but I couldn’t resist. The devil overcame me. He overpowered me and made me do it.”

There is no question that the devil will tempt us. He will bring appealing temptations our way. However, there must be an interest on our part for those temptations to work.

As James tells us, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15 NLT).

Satan will use different kinds of bait for different kinds of fish, so to speak. Here’s what we need to remember: It isn’t the bait that constitutes sin; it’s the bite. In other words, it is not a sin when we face temptation. It is only a sin when we give in to that temptation.

This is clearly what happened to Samson. And amazingly, Delilah didn’t try to hide what she was doing. She said, “Please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely” (Judges 16:6 NLT).

That should have been the first sign that this wasn’t a healthy relationship. But Samson didn’t realize what was going on. That is the problem with sin. It’s intoxicating, and it brings us under its power. Therefore, we don’t think rationally.

Samson thought he could handle Delilah. He probably thought, “What is she going to do to me? I’m Samson.” He may have even believed that it was a game. Yet the Bible warns, “Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?” (Proverbs 6:27 NLT).

This should have been a wake-up call for Samson. It should have shown him that he was on the wrong track. Meanwhile, Delilah was getting closer and closer to the secret of his strength.

Every Christian will be tempted. And if you’re being tempted, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it could indicate that you’re on the right track spiritually and that Satan is trying to take you down. The problem isn’t being tempted. The problem is giving in to it.

Deadly Complacency / Greg Laurie

 Deadly Complacency

When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. (Ecclesiastes 8:11 NLT)

For twenty long years, Samson had experienced the thrill of victory. It was clear from the very beginning that God’s hand was upon him. The Bible tells us that God blessed him as he grew up, and the Spirit of the Lord began to take hold of him (see Judges 13:24-25).

For twenty long years, Samson had never known the agony of defeat. That should have made him thankful to God. Instead, it produced in him a deadly complacency about his spiritual life.

And no sooner did Samson’s life of promise begin than he disobeyed God by going out and marrying a Philistine woman. God had clearly prohibited this. But Samson didn’t care. He told his parents he wanted to marry this woman, and he ignored their objections.

This is where the breakdown began that would culminate in his downfall with Delilah. Sure enough, after he married the Philistine woman, everything began to fall apart. God was giving him a wake-up call to turn from his sin.

Judges 16:1 tells us, “One day Samson went to the Philistine town of Gaza and spent the night with a prostitute” (NLT). Samson deliberately made this choice, crossing the line. He was sure there was no trap from which he couldn’t free himself. And he blatantly took this radical step.

Clearly, Samson wasn’t walking with the Lord at this point. We don’t read of any spiritual struggle beforehand or of any remorse afterward. But this episode in Gaza led to Samson’s destruction. What he sowed with the prostitute, he reaped with the devious Delilah.

When Samson’s enemies in Gaza found out he was in their city, they sealed up the massive city gate and waited to kill him. There was no other way out of the city, at least not for an ordinary man.

But at midnight, the Bible says, Samson “got up, took hold of the doors of the town gate, including the two posts, and lifted them up, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them all the way to the top of the hill across from Hebron” (verse 3 NLT).

God had once again delivered Samson. And what made his life so tragic is that he had power without purity. He had strength without self-control.

Sometimes when we get away with sin, we think we’ll always get away with it. But no one ever completely gets away with sin. God sometimes will extend His grace and not discipline us right away. As a result, we might begin to misinterpret the grace of God for His permission.

The Bible says, “When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong” (Ecclesiastes 8:11 NLT). When we sin, we might not get caught right away, but we must not assume we will get away with it forever. We may not even experience the full ramifications of our actions until we stand before God. But sooner or later, it will catch up with us. There are no exceptions.

A Squandered Life / Greg Laurie

 A Squandered Life

The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. (Jeremiah 18:1-3 NLT)

Jeremiah the prophet watched as the potter patiently formed the clay on the wheel. Obviously, he had a goal and purpose in mind for that piece of clay. But some of it was resistant and inflexible in the potter’s hands. Therefore, he cast it aside for a lesser purpose.

In other words, the clay didn’t become what the potter wanted it to be.

We are like the clay, and God is like the potter. He has a plan for each of our lives that is better than anything we’ve planned for ourselves. And we have a choice as to whether we’ll yield to the will of God for our lives or resist it.

Of course, we’ll have setbacks in life. We’ll face hardship and tragedy. We’ll encounter unexpected problems. But we have a choice as to whether we will become bitter or better.

Joseph had setback after setback, yet he chose to look to God. He was even able to say to his brothers who had betrayed him, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (Genesis 50:20 NLT).

In contrast, Samson was someone whom God could have used mightily, but he threw his life away because he made some subtle but serious mistakes. His was a life of squandered resources and wasted potential. And it stands as a warning to us that a good beginning doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good ending.

As Solomon wrote, “Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 NLT). Or, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.”

Of course, when we think of Samson, we usually think of his fall with Delilah. However, it was a series of small compromises that ultimately led to his undoing.

God put his hand upon Samson in a unique way. Physically, there was no one stronger. The Bible tells us that God’s Spirit would come upon him, and he would do incredible, superhuman feats.

During Samson’s life, it was a very wicked time in Israel’s history. The Book of Judges says that everyone “did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (17:6 NLT). So, God raised up Samson. He was one of two people in the Old Testament whose birth and mission were foretold by an angel. And the angel said of Samson, “He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines” (Judges 13:5 NLT). 

Samson had the potential to do great things, but he didn’t finish the task he had started.

Life is full of surprises. We all know people like Samson, people who had great promise but never reached their potential. Then there are others who didn’t seem to have much promise, yet God is powerfully using them today.

What will you do with the life that God has given you? You have a choice. Will you conform to the will of God, or will you resist it?

How to Take On a Giant / Greg Laurie

 How to Take On a Giant

“And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!” (1 Samuel 17:47 NLT)

Sometimes as Christians we forget that we’re fighting a spiritual battle. A lot of the things that we’re facing in life have a spiritual element to them.

Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (NLT).

And when David went out to face the giant Goliath in battle, he said, “Everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!” (1 Samuel 17:47 NLT).

In a spiritual battle, we must use spiritual weapons. The Bible tells us, “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4 NLT).

What are spiritual weapons? Prayer is one of them. Have you ever noticed how big your problems can seem when you haven’t prayed? Worry overtakes you. It’s like a force all on its own. You can worry yourself into a frenzy.

Here’s what the Bible says about worry: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT).

When was the last time that you prayed about the problem you’re facing? Prayer puts things into perspective.

The next time you’re tempted to worry, pray instead. Pray about that problem. Pray about that issue. And ask other people to pray with you.

If you tolerate a Goliath in your life, he will take over your territory. For instance, maybe you think you’re going to go ahead and play around with a so-called little sin. You tell yourself that you know when to stop, that you won’t go too far.

Then one day you have a bona fide giant in your life, and you want it to go away.

You don’t reason with a giant or yell at a giant. You kill him. That is what David did. The Bible tells us that “as Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him” (1 Samuel 17:48 NLT). That’s the only way to take on a giant.

And remember, the battle is the Lord’s. Sometimes God will allow us to hit rock bottom, where we don’t have any human solutions. If you’re in this situation, you may think, “This is too difficult. I have tried everything. The only thing I can do now is trust God.”

That’s good. Then God will show you what He’s capable of. When you see God for who He is, you will see your giants for what they are. He is bigger than anyone or anything else.

A Small Errand / Greg Laurie

A Small Errand

David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Samuel 17:45 NLT)

After the prophet Samuel anointed David as the king of Israel, what did David do?

He went back to watching his sheep. If a lion or a bear attacked, he defended the sheep with his very life, if necessary. And no doubt while he was hanging out with the sheep and watching over them, he came up with some of the psalms we know today.

Maybe as he was watching them one day, he thought, “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name” (Psalm 23:1-3 NLT).

David was faithful, and he simply waited on God.

But one day he ran an errand that changed his life. His three oldest brothers had been called to battle against the Philistines at the valley of Elah. David’s father told him to go visit his brothers and take them some food.

As David made his way to the valley of Elah, he could hear shouting. He peeked through the crowd and saw an oversized Philistine named Goliath. He was standing in the valley, challenging someone from Israel to come and fight him.

The Bible tells us this had gone on for forty days and forty nights. David couldn’t believe it. He thought someone had to take this guy on. Why had no one answered his challenge?

About that time his brother Eliab saw him and said, “What are you doing around here anyway? What about those few sheep you’re supposed to be taking care of?” (1 Samuel 17:28 NLT).

When David was brought before King Saul, David told him, “Don’t worry about this Philistine. . . I’ll go fight him!” (verse 32 NLT).

Saul thought it was a joke. He said, “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth” (verse 33 NLT).

But David didn’t waver. He said, “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” (verses 34–37 NLT).

Then, armed with only his staff, a sling, and some stones, David went out to meet Goliath in battle. And with one well-placed shot from his sling, David toppled the giant.

It was David’s faithfulness in the little things that led to the big things. He was faithful with whatever God set before him. Are you being faithful with what God has set before you today?