God saw faith

The means wouldn’t have mattered, God saw faith.

I have been on a bible plan that is working through the whole Bible for 102 days now. (Praise God for His consistency!)

In today’s reading, we came upon the well known, and well shared story of David facing the Giant Goliath & God empowering him to defeat him, despite all odds & all impossibles.

It’s a fantastic story found in 1 Samuel chapter 17. (Please, go read it for yourself ❤ – it’s a powerful one filled with lots of dynamics, details, fear present, faith present, and The Mighty God who will NOT be mocked, NOR be proved unfaithful to His people.)

40 days, this giant has been standing there mocking the God of Israel, and its People.

And 40 days, the people of Israel have allowed it. . .

then comes David.

A young shepherd boy, the youngest of his many stronger, taller, brothers who’s been out tending to his father’s flock, singing simple, beautiful songs to His Maker, His God, His Friend.

God’s been equipping him all along…on the backside of a mountain somewhere…training his hands, and more importantly His heart – His heart posture – His spirit – for this first task, along the many others that will follow as God continues to call Him forward into the plans He has for him. Generation-changing plans.

Like I’ve already encouraged, please go read the whole chapter-the whole story for yourself, allowing God to speak to you in a new, fresh way, but for me this morning, while the speaker in my bible plan was talking about David defeating Goliath, I felt like God said to me:

“it was never about the slingshot, it was about David’s faith.”

“The means wouldn’t have mattered. God saw faith.“

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“The means wouldn’t have mattered.”

This stands out to me so much, because how often do we. . . do I calculate the means I need to get something done? To get something accomplished? The means I need to use to bring something to fruition, to make something happen. . .feeling like I’M the one who has to make it happen. . .I’M the one responsible for making the thing grow, or “succeed”, or look like a success. . . and yet in this Incredible moment-marking story, God whispers to me”: the means wouldn’t mattered. it wasn’t about the slingshot, it was about David’s faith. And not even just in the faith that David had, but, David’s faith in Who? David’s Faith IN. His. God.

It wasn’t about anything that David could provide for himself. It wasn’t about the the amount of faith David could muster up for the moment. No. It was about David’s faith in His God.

—Being responsible for the faith in God we bring to the table is a very different responsibility than being the THE ONE to make something happen, isn’t it? (Talking to myself here too, isn’t it, Briley?)

God is so kind. . . you know? Even when he disciplines us, or firmly shows us our very wrong ways of thinking, He is firm, but it is a loving kind of firm.

He trades us for our broken down, cracked-lens glasses that we’ve been clinging to, knowing or unknowingly. He takes those and breaks them fully, in order for us to see with PERFECT EYES – HIS eyes – ever fixed and filled with Love.

Maybe we should lay down our need to calculate the means, and give it all over to God?
(Even as I’m typing that, this thought isn’t where I planned to go this morning as I sat down with my laptop in hand. God wants to say something here…and I’m yielding to it, in humility, and Gratitude.)

Maybe we should lay down our searching for the means, our baking in the need to FIND out HOW, the How’s of life, the When’s of life, the “if not now, how will it come?”‘s of life?

I want to repent even now of my: Need to Know.

In truth, I don’t need to know, if I keep knowing You More, Lord.

I don’t need to know, if I keep knowing You, more, Lord.

If I’m Consistent with seeking after You. . . if I’m Consistent with getting to know you more and more, and more, and more.

I don’t need to know if I know You.

To repent of something is literally to turn away from the thing, and go in the other direction. . .so here I am, completely turning away from my need to know, and the worth and weight I’ve assigned to that.
I’m sorry.

You will help me Lord, as you’re willing to help all of us every moment of every day. no matter what it is.

God saw David’s faith.

God saw the Faith in Him. God recognized the Faith in GOD, within David. . . inside of David – untainted, unhindered, and unmoved. Unscathed.

(I want God to Recognize my Faith in Him)

God saw faith, in God, Present. (You remember how in school, your teacher would call attendance, and some very proper, or comical 😉 , students would answer: “present!” with a shout. (You remember 😉 ))

Present. God saw faith, in God, Present, and brought forth a Mighty Victory which has been told for thousands of generations, in nations all over the world.

He’s just looking for faith. . . . Belief.

God is just looking for faith, in Him. Belief in Him.
Will He find it in us?