As a think about the life of David in the Old Testament I can look at many aspects. The one that I have been focusing on lately is his ability to fight. Psalm 18 is written by David where he speaks of being prepared and trained for battle by God in order to face his enemy. He says in one part that God trained his hands to fight.
It's interesting that David took down Goliath with a slingshot and one smooth stone. But it is not so hard to believe when you start to look at David's life. For a time he cared for sheep in the desert. He actually told the King that he would face Goliath and conquer him because he had already beaten wild animals in the desert while caring for his sheep. He talked about protecting the sheep by killing a lion and a bear.
A friend shared some thoughts with me about David being out in the desert with a lot of time on his hands. His observation was that David probably used that slingshot a lot target practicing. That is probably how you kill some of the boredom of being out there. But it also trained him to become more and more accurate with that slingshot. David didn't face Goliath using the slingshot for the first time. He was trained and ready. He was confident as he faced his giant.
One of the things I have heard people say as part of learning to use a gun is how they need to relax and squeeze the trigger instead of pulling it. When you're unlearned with a gun the natural tendency is to pull the trigger. This usually causes a jerk and will always miss the target. But when you squeeze it while relaxing you can be a lot more accurate. Confidence is built through the use and practice.
It is very dangerous to send a soldier out who has not been proven with his weapon. Dangerous for his fellow soldiers, not the enemy!
So of course the spiritual lesson in this is how we are trained on a daily basis through life's situations to act according to the word of God and defeat our giants. The training happens on a daily basis. It happens during mundane activities. It happens every day that we act by faith using the truth of the word of God in our life. It happens in daily situations and circumstances. Little by little we are learning how to use what God has given us. And the more we use it, the more we become proficient with it.
All of us go through hard times and hard circumstances. But we’re not always in those circumstances, were not always under the gun so to speak. There are times when life is not so difficult and we can use those times to still apply the word of God and to be trained for a future event. It is a lot easier to target practice rather than face a lion being untried to do so. We need the target practice time. Here is a simple example. If we learn to pray on a daily basis believing God in the little things, then it's not so hard when a big thing happens. For example, with our children as they were growing up we would stop and pray for whatever pain or injury they had. Many times it was nothing and after a moment of prayer they would go back to playing like nothing ever happened. But then there were occasions that we really needed God to come through. And guess what? We already knew how to pray, we already knew how to trust, and so did our children.
Let's not wait for the hard moments in life to come along and then have to trust God in those moments, having absolutely no confidence. Let's learn to trust God on a daily basis in the little things and train for those moments that we don't plan for. Let’s apply the promises and word of God in our daily routines rather than wait for times that force us to believe while experiencing great anxiety and fear. If we train by constant use then when those harder times come along we can stand confidently with God's peace and use the weapons He's already trained us to use against the enemy of our soul. God has called us to be conquerors over the enemy. Practice makes perfect. Practice prepares us to win tomorrows battles!
