Most all of us know the story of David and Goliath. At nine feet plus and a coat of armor that weighed in at 125 pounds, with a javelin that weighed 15 pounds, this was a ferocious dude who held the whole army of Israel in fear. David is just a young teenager who delivers food to his brothers in the army and he is amazed that no one has the courage to go and take care of this guy.

But David had a rare combination of courage and faith. Here is what the conversation looked like. David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?”  He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.  What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 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.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

Here is what I love about David’s decision to go up against Goliath with nothing but a sling and five stones. Before he used that sling to kill him, David said this, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down…All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

David’s ability to handle this threat came from a powerful combination of courage and faith. The courage to confront evil and the faith to believe that God would deliver him and the people. Think about that today in your life. Where do you need the courage to confront a situation and can you do so with faith knowing that the battle is the Lord’s.

Father, I pray for courage, which I often have too little of. And give me faith to understand that the battle is yours and you can use me to defeat the Goliaths I face in life. Amen.