On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us.
There’s an irony in life: how quickly we forget good things and how easily we remember the bad stuff.
I once heard that for someone to forget a painful comment, the other person needs to give at least ten compliments to erase the memory.
When I look at the story of David and Goliath, I believe one of the things that set David apart from all the other soldiers — who were too afraid to fight Goliath — is that he chose to remember past victories.
When King Saul tells David that he is too small and inexperienced to fight Goliath, David replies:
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. […] Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them. – 1 Samuel 17:33-36 NIV
It is unthinkable that in Saul’s entire army there weren’t any other experienced fighters who had seen great victories during previous battles. And yet we read that all of them, including Saul himself, were too afraid to fight Goliath (1 Samuel 17:11).
David chose to focus on God’s faithfulness, not Goliath’s intimidating strength. God had helped him kill the lion and the bear; surely He would help David kill Goliath.
Paul carried a similar spirit when he wrote:
Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us. – 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 NIV
Take a moment today to ponder over past victories. What were the moments in your life where you experienced God’s faithfulness?
