Sitting at my desk I happily studied the story of David and Goliath this morning in 1 Samuel 17. I reached the end of the story and stared out my window. ...David certainly had faith, faith I wished I had. It was then, out of nowhere, I felt the Lord say, "One stone." It took me only a moment, I knew immediately what He was telling me. One stone. Goliath fell to the ground with one stone. David only had to use one small stone from that little brook to bring down the giant. The Lord didn't need an army. He only needed my trust and obedience. Jesus wanted my one stone. He wanted my attention to be in place despite my circumstances. He wanted me, a mustard seed of faith. That's all He needed. A mustard seed that He would use to move mountains.
Yet those mountains would move in God's timing, not mine.
"Life is not a sprint, it's marathon," I remember my friend saying. I had laughed. Sprinting was what I was good at. Long distances...not so much. Growing up I could never run the one or two mile races as well as I could the dashes. They were some of my favorites. I thrived on the short term flight of speed. When it came to long distances however, that took training and preparation. It took thought and self discipline to pace yourself. Sprints only took a burst of speed at a whistle's blow. Quick victory, little work. Just run fast. In life it's true though, it's not a sprint but a marathon. One that seems incredibly long and filled with times you feel like you are going in complete circles, over and over and over again. in the sun. without water. uphill. without your left leg.
How often in difficulties do we spend our energy on the first sprint failing to endure the long distance and ending up wanting to give in? Ideally, what we want is for difficulties to be short, quick, and easy, or more preferably nonexistent. And if, in the coming, the stretch of road you are on is not easy, we desire to command it to be short, to control it to be brief. We want to command God that if it must be painful at least rip the bandage off quickly.
I am reminded of the farmer.
What farmer goes out and toils in his field, preparing and tearing at the soil with his plow again and again until he feels it is prepared for his precious seed to thrive, and after planting will he come out the very next day and harvest his field?
Many of us are good at buying our seed, with vigor we push to plow under the hot sun, toiling long enough that we might plant our store, with endurance we push to lay our seed into the earth. Shortly after however we lose our drive. We want the rain to come, the light to dawn, and the crop to grow up in instant abundance. We fail to see the seed under the ground growing and changing day by day. We want our harvest and in our haste, impatience, hopelessness, in our foolishness, we become that farmer who heads out early to reap his field only to find small baby seedlings are the harvest in his hand.
Do not lose hope. Hope will not disappoint. You will reap what you have sown. Patience brings the harvest. Heaven and earth changes through your faithfulness. It will be bountiful – God's way, and in His timing.
So whenever I stand looking at the face of a giant with only a pebble in hand, or look out at the empty field that I just continue to water...I must remember...David's victory came not because he fought well, but because he believed well. And so must I.
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