Hello All,
I am still tallying the votes for the "Pictures" post ("the response has been overwhelming," he said with his tongue firmly planted in his left cheek!) and have also found there to be little time over the last week to fulfill my task. Great news is that tonight, I will be blogging one of the stories that those pictures represent. In the meantime, many of you are aware that I went, along with my family last week, to Family Camp. I might write about that sometime soon, or never, but what I did write for Family Camp were the devotions for the families that went. I got the opportunity to do that last year, and was asked to do it again. I thought that I might share them with you here. The theme was "Heroes Of The Faith: Though None Go With Me..."
So with no further adieu, here in this post is the one I wrote about Daniel. Please keep in mind that these were intended for the whole family, something that I find difficult to do well, but tried my best to accomplish.
“Then David said to Saul, ‘Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’”
It’s hard to be brave sometimes, isn’t it? Being scared seems to be easier. Being scared is a reaction, being brave is a decision. There are some scary things in this world. But there was nothing more scary than having to fight a giant. That is what the army of Israel had to face.
His name was Goliath and he was over 9 ft tall. He was a champion fighter, with thick armor and a long sword. He stood out and yelled at the army of Israel, challenging them to a one-on-one fight. “You send your best fighter to fight me and the winner takes all!”
Wow! How would you like to be the person that had to fight this monster of a man? Now remember, Goliath was challenging soldiers to fight. These were men with armor and weapons too! They were trained for battle too. Granted they were a little shorter and a lot less fearsome than Goliath, but they were soldiers. They were expected to fight. They were equipped to fight. Unfortunately, it seems that they were too scared to fight! This standoff took 40 days!
Enter in David. David is just delivering some cheese and bread for his brothers. I imagine that he was singing one of his Psalms, just walking along, when he comes upon the two armies, standing across from each other. He hears a distant voice and runs to hear what the voice is saying. He hears Goliath screaming, “I defy the armies of Israel…”
David was angry and thought, “How can this man talk like this?! Doesn’t he know that God is our God?! I won’t let him speak about God this way!”
Now, what is striking is that David is the only one to think this! For 40 days the soldiers have been shivering in their sandals! They have been afraid. David is not even a soldier! He was only running an errand for his Dad! But he had learned something that he had seen in experience: God would protect him and give him the victory.
“But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. ‘Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.’ Moreover David said, ‘The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you!’”
David knew that God had been with him every time he faced troubles. He had faced fierce animals and scary things, but he knew that he had never faced them alone, for God was with him.
Do you know that God is with you and that He will never leave your side? When you know that, you can always stand up for what is right, for the things that make God happy! When you know that God will never leave you, and that He will always stand with you, it’s easy to choose to be brave and hard to be scared!
I am still tallying the votes for the "Pictures" post ("the response has been overwhelming," he said with his tongue firmly planted in his left cheek!) and have also found there to be little time over the last week to fulfill my task. Great news is that tonight, I will be blogging one of the stories that those pictures represent. In the meantime, many of you are aware that I went, along with my family last week, to Family Camp. I might write about that sometime soon, or never, but what I did write for Family Camp were the devotions for the families that went. I got the opportunity to do that last year, and was asked to do it again. I thought that I might share them with you here. The theme was "Heroes Of The Faith: Though None Go With Me..."
So with no further adieu, here in this post is the one I wrote about Daniel. Please keep in mind that these were intended for the whole family, something that I find difficult to do well, but tried my best to accomplish.
“Then David said to Saul, ‘Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’”
I Samuel 17:32
It’s hard to be brave sometimes, isn’t it? Being scared seems to be easier. Being scared is a reaction, being brave is a decision. There are some scary things in this world. But there was nothing more scary than having to fight a giant. That is what the army of Israel had to face.
His name was Goliath and he was over 9 ft tall. He was a champion fighter, with thick armor and a long sword. He stood out and yelled at the army of Israel, challenging them to a one-on-one fight. “You send your best fighter to fight me and the winner takes all!”
Wow! How would you like to be the person that had to fight this monster of a man? Now remember, Goliath was challenging soldiers to fight. These were men with armor and weapons too! They were trained for battle too. Granted they were a little shorter and a lot less fearsome than Goliath, but they were soldiers. They were expected to fight. They were equipped to fight. Unfortunately, it seems that they were too scared to fight! This standoff took 40 days!
Enter in David. David is just delivering some cheese and bread for his brothers. I imagine that he was singing one of his Psalms, just walking along, when he comes upon the two armies, standing across from each other. He hears a distant voice and runs to hear what the voice is saying. He hears Goliath screaming, “I defy the armies of Israel…”
David was angry and thought, “How can this man talk like this?! Doesn’t he know that God is our God?! I won’t let him speak about God this way!”
Now, what is striking is that David is the only one to think this! For 40 days the soldiers have been shivering in their sandals! They have been afraid. David is not even a soldier! He was only running an errand for his Dad! But he had learned something that he had seen in experience: God would protect him and give him the victory.
“But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. ‘Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.’ Moreover David said, ‘The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you!’”
David knew that God had been with him every time he faced troubles. He had faced fierce animals and scary things, but he knew that he had never faced them alone, for God was with him.
Do you know that God is with you and that He will never leave your side? When you know that, you can always stand up for what is right, for the things that make God happy! When you know that God will never leave you, and that He will always stand with you, it’s easy to choose to be brave and hard to be scared!
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