Cutting Room Floor - David and Goliath

Trust God in the ordinary, and let Him worry about the extraordinary.


Saul tells David he’s too young and inexperienced to fight Goliath, since Goliath has been a trained warrior from his youth.

David responds by pointing to his past as a shepherd: when lions or bears attacked his flock, he pursued them, killed them, and rescued the sheep.

He argues that the same God who helped him defeat those predators will also deliver him from Goliath.

When I say that, of course our minds rightly go - Wow, David had killed lions and bears.  That’s crazy.

I admit, those are some pretty extraordinary victories.

But notice, these extraordinary victories occurred in the course of David living his ordinary life as a shepherd.

Before David ever faced Goliath, he had learned to depend on the strength of God in his everyday vocation and calling.  

David didn’t wake up looking for giants to slay, he woke up looking for sheep to protect.

David stacked up years of watching God work in the ordinary, with no one giving him recognition, no rounds of applause, no praise from the king.

And after years of dependance on God in his ordinary life, the Lord put him in a position to achieve something extraordinary.

And think about this - the only reason David was even at the battlefield is because he humbly obeyed his dad’s instructions to bring bread and cheese to the soldiers.

It was as David was faithfully tending the sheep, and just faithfully honoring his father’s commands to essentially wait tables for the soldiers, that God put him in the position to conquer the giant.

Some of us would be happy to be seen as a giant killer, but we’re too good to be seen carrying bread and cheese to the battlefield.

Many of us love the idea of extraordinary greatness, but don’t have much time for ordinary godliness.

God doesn’t call you to pursue greatness, He calls you to pursue godliness.

You chase godliness, let God handle the greatness.

Well, you may say, I don’t struggle chasing greatness.  I’m not some athlete or  movie star.

I know how ordinary I am.

Well, I think we all struggle with this in our own way.  

We want to be the best.  We want to impress.  We want to be recognized. We want personal greatness on some level.

You’re not called to be the greatest coach or the greatest teacher ever or the greatest mom or the greatest friend ever.

You are called to be a godly coach.  A godly teacher.  A godly mom. A godly friend.

If you’re thinking of your life in light of David's, what I’m saying is that some of us need to refocus on the bears and lions in our life, and let God decide if we’ll ever cross paths with a giant.

Some of us just need to carry the bread and cheese to the battlefield and let God take care of the rest.

You have a battle to fight, right now, today in pursuit of ordinary godliness.

Maybe it’s just that you need to forgive somebody.  Or reach out to someone and ask for their forgiveness.

Maybe you just need to be more intentional as a spouse, and simply be a better listener.

Maybe you haven’t really been working at your job with a godly zeal, because you wanna do something more significant.

Maybe you just need to start getting in the word more.

There are some things we all need to focus on right now today in the pursuit of ordinary godliness.

You stack up days and weeks and months of years of ordinary obedience, of long obedience in the same direction, and God will handle the greatness.

God will increase your fruitfulness and your impact.  

You just seek to be a godly dad, and your kids will look back one day at the end of your life, and they will say - he was a great dad.

You just seek to be a godly employee, and your boss is probably at some point going to recognize you as a great employee.

You just seek to be a godly friend, and your friends are going to say that you are a great friend.

But as for you, you just pursue godliness.  Let God handle the greatness.



Meditation on God’s past victories fuels our faith for future victories

This is connected to the previous point.  

1 Samuel 17:37 (ESV)

37And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”


David not only pursued the Lord’s strength and help in the ordinary, he used those past experiences with God to increase his faith in the future activity of God.

Reflecting on God’s past victories fuels faith in God’s future activity.



In other words, when you don’t know what God is doing, and you are anxious because you aren’t sure what He’s gonna do, start thinking back to everything He’s already done.

But, what if I can’t think of much that God has done for me? My life has been really hard.  I haven’t seen miracles.

Let me remind you of this:

Romans 8:32–33 (ESV)
32He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

What God has done for all of us in the past is provide His perfect Son as a sin canceling sacrifice.

When you aren’t sure how he’s going to get you out of a difficult situation, think back to how He got you out of your sin.

When you aren’t convinced that He’s going to provide, think back to how He provided His only Son for you at the cross.

When you are worried that sin and satan have gotten the upperhand, think back to how God defeated the devil and covered over your sin at the cross.

David's reasoning was - if God delivered me from lions and bears, then I expect to just add Goliath to the list of God given victories.

And we can reason the same way.  If God gave me His only Son, I can expect Him to give me every victory I need.