Wednesday Bible Blurb, originally published to Facebook on 1-17-2024
The young man walked into the camp bearing food and looking for his brothers. They had gone off to war with King Saul to fight the Philistines only to be confronted by a giant of a man named Goliath. For 40 days Goliath had shouted to Israel, “I defy the armies of Israel this day…” (I Sam. 17:10 [NKJV]). Stress filled the camp of Israel. Fear and lack of faith in God to deliver the enemy had rendered the army of Israel powerless to act. Upon entering the camp of Israel, David, the young shepherd could feel the stress and see the concern of the army of Israel. Hearing the giant shout profanities and his boast to defy the God of Israel, David went to King Saul and volunteered to remove the stress from the armies of Israel. With one stone in his sling, the young shepherd killed the God defying giant of Philistia. The stress was eliminated.
Young David knew what we should know as we travel through our personal lives of stress. “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.” (I Sam. 17:47). Stress has much to do with faith. Our modern busy life is full of daily stressors. We have so much to do and accomplish each day, work, family, work, prayer, work, chores, work, Bible Study, we can overwhelm ourselves and create great stress on ourselves. Give it to God. David could see the stress in the armies of Israel and he could certainly see it in King Saul. David gave it to God and the giant of stress was slain. Give our stress to God.
Israel was fighting the enemy by sight rather than by faith. They could see the giant Goliath and the army of Philistia laughing and mocking them. What they failed to see was God helping them. Paul addressed this, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (II Cor. 5:7). Saul and Israel had it backwards. The young shepherd boy David had it correct. He gave the stressful situation to God and the giant of stress was slain. God expects us to do our part, just as David did. The future king of Israel did not stand there and watch Goliath mock God as Saul did. No, David did something. He gathered up five stones, his staff and his sling and he attacked the stress point-Goliath. James, brother of Jesus says, “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). David showed the Armies of Israel and Philistia his faith of works and Goliath died. James continued on and said”…faith without works is dead.” (James 2:20b). Goliath had no faith in God and he is dead.
We must learn to give our daily life stress to God. Yes, we do our part by working but when we are overwhelmed, down in the dumps, over worked, underpaid and outperformed we MUST give our stress to God to remedy the situation. Goliath our personal stress giant can live in our daily lives if we let him. Let God remove our stress.
Jesus, on His last night of life faced the stress of saving the entirety of humanity. The goliath cross was ready to crucify Him. The scourge was out, the crown of thorns was to be pushed upon Him, the liars were ready, the pain was coming and Satan was hopeful for His failure. Jesus could see the Goliath of sin mocking and laughing at Him. He fell down on His knees and gave the stress of saving the world to God. In deep, emotional agonizing prayer He said, “Father if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42). His physical and mental stress was so great He began to sweat great drops of blood and fell down to the ground in his prayer. He gave the stress to God and won the battle against the giant Goliath of stress.
Giving our daily stress to God is us showing our faith in Him. We can help to alleviate our stress by prayer, fasting, Bible study, fishing (This really helps me and Ken Lawson), spending time with the brethren, walking, exercising, serving others and by giving our daily lives to God. Jesus created the entire universe, He has been through more stress than we can imagine, He is big enough to handle our stress. Remember how David gave his stress to God and Goliath died. We must give our stress to God so that our daily Goliath can die. Stress, give it to God.
