It's All a Matter of Perspective

When I was a kid, there was a movie called "My Bodyguard". It 's about a small kid in a new school who is being bullied. He takes an interesting approach to the problem. He hires the most feared kid in school to be his bodyguard. Have you ever wished you had a bodyguard like that?  You wouldn't need to fear anyone who comes against you. With the right bodyguard you can face anyone, no matter how big.

In one of the most recognizable passages of scripture we see something, at least at first glance, similar. The army of Israel under the kingship of Saul was facing the Philistine army in the Valley of Elah. Each day, for 40 days, a champion from the Philistine army would come out and challenge the Israelites. They were scared to death of him. He was 9 feet 9 inches tall and wore 175 pounds of armor. Then along comes David.


David was just a kid, really. His three oldest brothers were there in the army fighting for Israel under Saul. When David brought his brothers food and saw that the whole army was scared, he scoffed at them. He looked at the situation and had to have thought to himself, "We have God the Most High with us." He knew that when you have God on your side that no one can beat you. He didn't understand why the whole army was scared. This guy, Goliath, wasn't really much bigger than any of the wild animals he had already taken care of while he tended his father's flocks of sheep and he was the enemy of God.

When David convinced King Saul to let him be Israel's champion, Saul tried to give him his own armor and sword to face Goliath. David started to try it on and got rid of it. He said it was too bulky and he was unfamiliar with it. He instead chose his trusty sling and a few smooth stones. When he went out to face the giant, Goliath laughed at him. But you see David knew God was right there. David knew that God would guide his arm and his sling and his stone right to the target. His motives were pure. He wanted to beat this guy because he represented God's enemies. He wound up and let a stone go. It hit Goliath right in the middle of his forehead and laid him out cold. Wow!

Here's the difference from the movie and David's real life adventure. In the movie the kid had a body guard to fight his fights. With David, God wasn't his body guard, He was in his heart and soul. He was the one really being offended. David was yielding himself to fight God's battle.

David wasn't scared, he knew the Lord was there with him. He knew the Lord was directing him. His courage was from the Lord. His view of the whole situation was different than that of everyone else because his view was from the Lord.

Let's not dismiss this passage of scripture because it is told countless times as a children's story. Something very real happened on that day in that valley in front of God's people and the people who stood in the place of God's enemy. That faith and perspective that David had can be yours today. David faced Goliath without fear or trepidation. He was literally facing a giant and yet stood faithfully in the strength of God.

My friends, we all face giants in our lives. We all face mountains that seem unclimbable. Some are financial hurdles and others are hurdles of relationship issues. There are health hurdles and emotional hurdles. Some of them are very big, others are small enough for us to think we can take care of it without God's help or so small we try to just dismiss them. Let's not get caught up in that trap.

The enemy of our souls wants us to believe we are incapable of overcoming a hurdle in our life and that God doesn't care about it. He lies to us trying to get us to believe we can handle things without God and that if we survive, it will make us stronger. What a farce! That which we face without God and seem to survive is only going to come back around to be faced again. I guarantee it. There is no winning against the snares of the devil without God.

David knew he could beat Goliath because God was there with him guiding his every movement and every motive. David knew this giant wasn't fighting him, he was really an instrument being used to fight God.

Fellow believer, as you face challenges, know that the challenges you face are an attack by Satan on God not on you personally. Our lives are the battlefield of a spiritual battle that will one day end when Jesus returns. We can face each of these giants with the full knowledge and belief that God is with us and when we are operating with His motives in our own hearts, we can do nothing but succeed.

It's all a matter of perspective.