What Are You Looking At?

Warriors Arise: August 26, 2022

1 Samuel 18:5 (NKJV) So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

Jonathan had his work cut out for him. His dad set David over the men of war. This wasn't ten years after David killed the giant. David had been through battle school. How is it that Saul felt confident in David that he could set him over the men of war? When David was brought to Saul's tent and share that he would deliver Israel, his view of David was not encouraging.

1 Samuel 17:33 (NKJV) And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”

Saul looked at David and made his assessment according to what he saw. David was a youth. He didn't look like a warrior. Next he compared David's inability to the Philistines' ability. Not that Saul had seen the Philistine fight, but at least the Philistine looked like he was a warrior. David, what did he look like? He was young, smelled of sheep, and in shepherd's clothing. He was just an errand boy for his father. He was here to bring supplies. He wasn't here to fight in the army. He was nothing like the man, the beast, the giant who had been taunting them every day with a challenge.

1 Samuel 17:4-7 (NKJV) And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7 Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him.

David was young and ruddy. This is what Samuel saw as well as Saul. There are times when people look at you and they can't see the potential inside of you. They have no idea what you have been doing in your day to day life. They don't know the battles you have won over the enemy, who has fought to steal from you. They don't know the hours of worship you have given to the Lord. They don't know the number of times you and God have spoken. They don't know your obedience to follow through even in the most mundane of chores you have been given. They don't know the excellence you put into what you have been assigned to do. They don't know you have been practicing and are skilled in defending what has been given into your hands to protect. People don't know what they don't know. Samuel did not know what to look for when anointing a king.

1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV) But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Saul compared what he saw of David verses what he saw in the giant who taunted them. David didn't have anyone who saw in him, what God saw in him. Yet, he still honored God, served his father well, faced a giant and won. You can't really say David battled a giant, because the Philistine never even had a chance. There really wasn't a battle. It was a slaying. The giant stood up and came toward David. David ran toward the giant, released the stone about 100 yards away and the giant fell to the ground with a thud. David probably continued to run, to make sure the giant didn't get up before David severed his head from his body. Did Saul see that in David?

It isn't what you and I see on the outside, it is what we have on the inside. God uses what we have on the inside of us.

Do you have courage?

Do you have strength?

Do you have wisdom?

Do you have focus?

Do you have ability?

Do you have faith?

Do you have tenacity?

Do you have fortitude?

Do you have followthrough?

Do you have steadfast thoughts?

Do you have passion?

Do you have confidence?

Do you recognize your significance?

Do you have obedience?

It doesn't matter what people see when they look at you. What matters is what you have inside of you. What you have inside of you is what determines if you are a giant slayer or held captive by the giant.

Father, we spend so much time worried about what people think of us when most of the time they are only seeing the outside of us. Nothing on my outside says I am a giant slayer. But on my inside, I know Whose I am. I am Your child. I am created to resist the enemy. When I submit to You, I have the ability to tell the enemy to go and he must go. You in me and being in Christ, I have hope, courage and strength. You in me and me in Christ, I have faith, followthrough and fortitude. You in me and me in Christ in me I am significant, confident and full of passion. You in me and me in Christ, I have wisdom, obedience, and I am steadfast in my thoughts. There is so much more to me than what meets the eye, because You are in me and I am in Christ. I will not allow what others see to deter me from accomplishing Your will in Jesus' name amen.

A Warrior in the Lord’s Army,

Veridee Joy Hand

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