Series: Slaying Giants
Weekly Devotional - Speaking Clearly
1 Samuel 17:24-32
Don’t Lose Heart
As David arrived at the battlefield, he heard Goliath’s threats and witnessed the great fear that had pervaded the Israelite army. Trained and war-hardened soldiers fled from the giant in great terror. Even Saul, the king and leader of the army, who had won great victories for Israel in the past, had lost heart at the threat of Goliath. Into this environment stepped David, who was not an experienced warrior, but who had an unshakable heart. And it was he who won the victory.
The heart matters. It is the essence of who we are, and it determines how we will respond when the pressure is on. As Jesus said:
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
—Luke 6:45
The Israelite army may have looked formidable. They may have boasted of their courage. But their hearts betrayed them when Goliath challenged them. Unlike the Israelite soldiers and king, David had a heart that could not be beaten down, even when everyone around him had already given up. This gave him the inner strength needed to face the giant everyone else feared. David was just a shepherd boy, but the quality of his heart gave him the inner resources he needed to defeat Goliath and then, eventually, to ascend all the way to the palace. Truly, there is something about the condition of our hearts that turns us into giant slayers. The tenacity of our hearts determines the probability of our victory.
*Leif Hetland
