Response
1 Samuel 17:45 MKJV And David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Jehovah will deliver you into my hand today, and I will strike you and take your head from you and give the bodies of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the air today, and to the wild beasts of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 And all this multitude shall know that Jehovah does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is Jehovah’s, and He will give you into our hands.
I drove through the gate and up the driveway of a customer’s house the other day where I had an order to do a roofing estimate. I removed the ladder from the top of my car and started towards the house when I noticed a black Labrador retriever running from the back of the house, circling behind my vehicle and bounding towards me. I had happy thoughts of Buck, a Lab that had been my buddy from several years ago, and thought how nice this was to be greeted by this fella that looked a bit like him. As he approached, however, I soon discovered that greeting me was not his intention. He began to let me know with a very harsh tone that where I was and what I was attempting to do was not allowed. Barring his teeth and lunging towards me, he made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and adrenaline run through my body as it appeared that he would definitely like to remove a piece of my leg to emphasize his point. Luckily I still held the ladder which I could use to fend him off, but I was in a difficult position, needing to complete my work, but not wanting to let go of my ladder for fear of this ferocious creature. I fearfully let him know a bit loudly myself that he was out of line and needed to back off, but it seemed that he wasn’t too impressed. After this bantering had gone on for a little while with me poking my ladder at him and him lunging back, my fear began to be replaced by anger. I had a job to do and here was this dog ungratefully treating me like some kind of bandit. I determined that I would put an end to this silliness by taking the battle to him, charging at him and yelling for all I was worth. Just as I started towards him, though, and after my first loud commands were uttered, the dog’s owner finally came out of the house to silence him. Grateful that I had not been caught totally humiliating that proud animal, I was still quite embarrassed and tried to somehow explain my situation to this customer I was meeting for the first time. Though glad that the dog was subdued, there was a little part of me, and I must say a very little part, that was a bit disappointed he hadn’t been subdued by me.
So many times we have something before us that is ours to do, ours to accomplish, and just as we’re approaching it there is a ferocious resistance that just won’t back off. Tempted to just get in the car and drive off, this might actually be the most chosen option. Just leave it for another day or file it with the undoables. There is within us, though, a response that will most certainly send that ferocious creature running with its tail between its legs, or, as in David’s case, headless. It would have been so much easier for David to have just dropped off the lunches for his brothers, heard Goliath’s barking, and went back home. He saw, though, that there was an unfinished job that was more than doable. Sitting back and wishing or hoping would not be enough, though. If this aggravating resistance was going to be removed the battle would have to be taken to the giant, and not without determination and not without a shouting declaration of impending victory. Any potential fear was replaced by a Godly anger and vision of exactly was going to take place by the power of his God. It wasn’t his own ability or his own strength that emboldened him, but it was the power of the Spirit in him that had already been proven faithful against the lion and the bear. This unworthy being before him was no match for David’s God, and he confidently committed to a response that would demonstrate this beyond a shadow of a doubt.
For every creature that would stand in the way of our purpose in Christ for this day, there is a response of boldness that can replace any former responses or retreats. Much better than an unfinished job or unfulfilled dream, there is a defeated foe and completed task awaiting our faith-filled charge towards that powerless barking.
James 4: 7 MKJV Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
