A sling and a stone

"your servant has killed"

1 Samuel 17:36

How many people can say that?  How many servants of God can confidently make that statement, especially proudly.  Well, David said it, proudly and confidently. 

He made this statement to King Saul, by way of assuring him that he, David, could defeat Goliath in battle.  He was letting Saul know that in his job as shepherd, it had been necessary for David to kill both a lion, and a bear, to protect the sheep.  He had successfully done so, and at the same time, though he didn't know it, he had been preparing for Goliath.  His experience at killing was important.

When I was a teenager ~ probably about the same age as David at this time ~ my sister and I were home alone when we heard someone upstairs.  Our father was out of town, and our mother was out for the evening, so immediately we assumed it was an intruder.  My sister dialed 911, and urged me to go get a knife from the kitchen so that we could defend ourselves. 

While she spoke in whispered tones to the 911 dispatcher, I ran to where we kept the knives, and stood there trying to decide which was the best knife to use for defense.  The butcher knife is stronger, but my mom also has a large serrated knife that is longer than the butcher knife.  If I were going to defend myself, which knife was best for the job??

This whole thought process probably took about 30 seconds ~ at which point my mother came downstairs and opened the door to the family room.  She had come home early, and gone straight upstairs to change her clothes, and now she was coming downstairs to greet us. 

Well, needless to say, my sister told the 911 dispatcher that everything was fine.  I closed the knife drawer, and we all had a good laugh about it. 

But I thought about this experience the other day, as I thought about David's level of preparedness.  He was confident in his ability to defend himself against Goliath, because he'd had to defend himself ~ and his sheep ~ already in his life.  I had no idea how I was going to go about defending myself against an intruder.  {Although why we didn't just flee the house, and call 911 from a neighbor's house, is beyond me...}

God had prepared David.  He needed him to battle, so He prepared him through battle. 

What is He preparing you for?

~ "So David prevailed over the Philistine

   with a sling and a stone" ~

1 Samuel 17:50