1 Sam. 17:45 (NASB)
It is fascinating to me the things that I think I need in order to fight my battles. Ideally, I would want all of my tools and weapons to be significantly better than those of my adversaries. I want the odds stacked in my favor, and I want a pre-existing knowledge of the inevitability of my victory. I am a calculator. And if something does not appear to be in my favor, I usually do not engage the battle.
This is true for me in everything from tackling a plumbing problem myself to trying something out of my comfort zone (like flying). I am not going to likely do it unless I can gather the proper tools that give me the feeling of certain victory.
I think that sometimes this is how we engage our spiritual warfare as well. We think we can only fight those battles that we know we will win. We only witness when we know there is a nearly certain positive result. We only pursue the will of God when we know it aligns with what we want and are good at. We hate the feeling of weakness and trust and reliance. This is truly a sad place to be. God wants to use us in our weakness and to demonstrate that He is strong and that we are dependent and reliant upon Him! As David enters this battle against Goliath he acknowledges that Goliath has all of the advantages. He has the height, he has the weapons, he has the upper hand from the human side and yet David is equally assured of his own victory, not because of his tools, but because of the God who stands for him to fight his battles.
This is our hope as well. It is not in the talents, abilities or gifts that we have, but in the God who stands with us, ready to fight for us. Which is why when Paul talks about the armor of God in Ephesians 6 he puts it in the context of our job - to stand firm and allow God to work! So stand firm. And let God fight for you. He will do better than you would have anyway!
