“David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.’” (1 Samuel 17:45-47).
A few years ago, I worked through Beth Moore’s Bible study, “Believing God.” As with every study of Beth’s, I take away a few “nuggets” that stay with me over the course of time. In this particular study, Beth challenges participants to move beyond a faith that simply believes in God to a faith that boldly believes God—a faith that takes God at his word and walks in full assurance of that word.
Beth taught us a five point pledge of faith that beautifully scripts God’s identity and ours.
“God is who he says he is. God can do what he says he can do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ. God’s Word is alive and active in me.”[i]
It is pledge that frequents my mind and my heart because my wandering mind is prone to the deceit of my thoughts, and my wandering heart is prone to the deceit of man. By nature, I am a wanderer…in thought and in deed. Such a temporal shaping leaves little room for the shaping that God desires to do within me. And what he desires to do requires a deliberate yielding on my part—an intentional obedience that is willing to turn the heart and the mind toward the sacred truth of who He is and who I am as his child.
He is LORD…Yahweh…Covenant God. Alpha and Omega…from the very beginning all the way to our eternal ending. All that resides in between is a life lived. Yours and mine. A history written before it begins. Ours is a resting between the extremes of what was, what is, and what is to come. The LORD bookends our existence, and this sacred truth, my friends, is enough to script our minds and our hearts with a lasting peace that will usher us into our next.
David understood about a five point pledge of faith. He gathered his from a stream on a hillside in Judea. Five smooth stones. Carefully selected and safely secured within his shepherd’s pouch, David would take that pledge into battle. It mattered not which stone he chose. Any of the five would suffice to deliver the intended blow to the enemy.
What mattered was his knowing that a stone’s faith was required.
It is a sacred knowing that matters to us as well, for any other type of battle fortification is likely to leave us bleeding where we stand.
Take a few moments to read our scripture focus for the day, 1 Samuel 17:33-47.
Man would try and fortify David with man’s best—a king’s tunic, a coat of armor, a bronze helmet, and a sword. They didn’t fit…didn’t work for this boy whose hands were accustomed to a staff and to a rod. Thus, David forsook man’s best and traded up for God’s best—a cloaking that had nothing to do with outward reinforcements but everything to do with an inward underpinning.
Faith. A five-stone belief in a God who had scripted David’s life for kingdom living.
We, too, have been scripted accordingly…to live within the kingdom that God has ordained for our walk. But when that walk is threatened, when the enemy shouts his disdain over our lives, we are prone to our wandering thoughts and our faithless hearts. We cast our stones aside in hopes of securing a better plan for keeping the enemy at bay. Instead of choosing to fight the enemy with faith, we sometimes choose…
To deny his existence.
To ignore his shouts.
To fall apart and cease to function.
To default toward addictions in order to soothe the pain.
To retreat within the walls of seeming safety (television, internet, music) only to discover that our walls also perimeter our Goliaths.
To isolate ourselves from the support of others.
To garner support from others to the isolation of God.
To rationalize like Eve… “Maybe God didn’t really say…”.
To _______________________________.
On and on. One layer of armor after another until we can no longer walk to battle because the load is too heavy and our flesh is too weak. No wonder we lay day before the giant. We are too burdened to battle. (Remember my son?)
If this is you at times, and I certainly understand that this is me, then God has a simple solution for our dilemma. He asks of us what he asked of boy David all those years ago.
To lay down our armor and to cloak ourselves with his.
With a five stone kind of faith that proclaims…
God is who he says he is. God can do what he says he can do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ. God’s Word is alive and active in me.
It is the right stone for a difficult fight. We are prone to other armoring, but God is prone to our victory. So when Goliath forges onto our battlefield with his might, God asks us to forge ahead with Him—the LORD Almighty. The one Name and the only Stone whose aim is always straight and whose truth is always on target.
He is the only Stone worthy of my pocket this day…worthy of my heart for always…and so I pray,
Arm me Father, with the faith of David. Victory comes, not with a weapon, but with a stone’s belief that rightly identifies your rule in the matter. The world’s armor isn’t a good fit with kingdom living. Lighten my load and cloak me with the truth of your Word, so that I might walk in full assurance of the outcome. You have settled the issue between victory and defeat, between life and death. Let me rest in that embrace this day. Amen.
What armor are your prone to when facing the enemy? Why is “believing God” such a difficult embrace? Feel free to leave any thoughts by clicking on the word comment below. You can sign in as an anonymous donor if you don’t have a google account. I will be selecting a comment from all the comments at the end of this study for a prize. This is post #4 of 6.
Copyright © May 2008 – Elaine Olsen. All rights reserved.
[i] Beth Moore, Believing God (Nashville: LifeWay Press, 2002), 9.
I am going to put up my groceries and come right back and read today’s post, I just wanted to touch base with you….about the nail polish…:)
The polish is not black, it is OPI’s “Russian Navy”…when I first saw it, it reminded me of the Mediterranean Sea, so I bought it to have a little bit of the Mediterranean on my toes….then God said, “I’ll do you one better than that; I’ll send you there.” So that’s why I am wearing that color on my trip….I didn’t want you to think you were visiting the blog site of a “GOTHIC” girl.;) Black would definitely be too harsh for me too.:)In the sunlight this color looks like sapphires! 🙂
I’ll be back in a moment to read today’s post. I look forward to your posts very much!:)
God Bless,
Amy:)
To rationalize like Eve… “Maybe God didn’t really say…”.~
This is typically the armor that weighs me down.
My husband and I both did the blue string challenge from Beth’s book. It’s funny how just looking at the blue string would almost recharge my “faith batteries.”
Each time I would start to feel defeated, I would glance at that blue string and say, “God is who he says he is. God can do what he says he can do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ. God’s Word is alive and active in me.”
I shared with you last time about my husband’s job situation, and how so many people offered their suggestions of “armor” to me; man’s best “armor.” But God had given me a different “armor.” He gave me the armor of “FAITH.” He wanted me to be still and wait on Him. But to those in my life that didn’t understand, I probably looked like a shepherd boy going up against a giant with “just” a sling and a stone.:) But that is all God needed me to have……”just faith.” 🙂
Thanks again for sharing your heart, Elaine…..God and you make quite the encouraging team.:)
God Bless,
Amy:)
Hi there! I really liked this post. God’s Armor is really important to me. I’ve known about His armor for many years, however, I really didn’t know the importance of it until a couple of years ago. I had been having panic attacks in the middle of the night. I would jump out of bed, hit the floor running, head for a window or a door, and look outside. It would be at this moment that I would wake up. My heart would be pounding out of my chest and I would be some kind of scared. I went to the doctor, he diagnosed panic attacks and prescribed medicine.
Well, when I got married, I didn’t want to take any more medicine. I stopped and the attacks started happening again. My husband would thankfully wake me up and grab me before I jumped out of the bed. Then he would do the most amazing thing. He would start praying God’s armor over me. Piece by piece, he prayed.
The Lord showed my husband that the reason I was having the attacks was because of what I was putting into my mind. I loved horror movies and Patricia Cornwell novels. With the Lord’s prompting, my husband began to notice a pattern. I stopped watching and reading horrific material, and I don’t even watch the previews. One does indeed reap what he sows, and I was reaping terror because I was sowing it into my life. I’m glad I’m not bound to that anymore! Praise God for His armor, His protection and His revelation!
Prayers and Blessings!
Rebecca
Great post..thought provoking.
Elaine…
That pledge is also one I repeat a lot! A whole lot! 🙂
I used to protect myself in worldy ways. Ignoring the issues, isolation, retreat, striking out in anger when provoked. It was how I felt I needed to survive the hurts I experienced at a young age. Some of those bad traits still rear their ugly head. However, like you, I participated in “Believing God” The study brought me to a place of freedom. A place where I believed God… let Him be who He says He is and let Him do what He says He can do! Satan may have his sword, spear and javelin, but I have the Lord Almighty – I no longer have to retreat, ignore or rationalize. I have 5 stone faith in my sling! I can do all things through Christ – and God’s Word is alive and active in me!
Hi Elaine, I found your blog on the LPM Blog and I really loved your post. I have also done Believing God a couple of times, once on my own and once facilitating it at our church, and I still repeat the pledge of faith to myself all the time! Sometimes I really do need it to remind myself to not just believe in Him, but to believe Him!
Michelle
It use to be default to addictions. Addictions of negative thinking patterns and codependent relationships…but God and I have worked through that one. The ones I’m having trouble with still…isolating from others and hiding in “safety”.
If it’s okay I’m sending email…
I just started reading Beth Moore’s “Believing God” and I am loving it.
In the past I would try to fight my own battles. When I was all out of tricks I would turn to God in frustration. Now I am learning to turn to Him first.
This is great. I am actually in the process of completening “Breaking Free” right now, and then “Believing God” is the next on my list.
I loved what you wrote here Elaine:
David forsook man’s best and traded up for God’s best.
In the midst of “life’s junk” I so often don’t do that & later wish I had.
This was a great post…thanks my friend.
Hugs,
Lelia
Elaine,
How true all this is. We have a constant spiritual war. Praise God that the battle is not ours IF we let go and allow Him to fight for us. Whenever I hear the word armor or fight or battle. I always think of Ephesians 6:10-.
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the FULL armor of God so that you can TAKE YOUR STAND against the devil’s SCHEMES. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the SPIRITUAL FORCES of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that WHEN the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand FIRM then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the SHIELD of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be ALERT and always keep on praying for all the saints.
How beautiful that is. I do believe I could write a piece for my blog on that. The word ‘schemes’ is so descriptive to me. It shows that satan plans out carefully how to attack us. Our faith really is a ‘shield’. I think it’s also imperative to note verse 13 that says ‘when’ the day of evil comes…not IF, but when! We should be assured it will come and might I add does frequently.
Thanks for your comment on my blog. It is a comfort to know we are all struggling in this life together and that God didn’t single me out to “wait” on His promises to be fulfilled. Sometimes it does feel like I’m alone in this trial of mine.
Love,
Paula
What an excellent and thought provoking post. I am so glad I could find your blog. THis was such an encouragement.
Thank you for the comment on my blog. I honestly don’t know if they ever saw that pic I made for Beth, but I have it up there, in case they wanted it. 🙂
Anyway, yes Beth is totally awesome. I just love her. 🙂 I will come visit your blog again. I enjoyed your post very much
Andreea
You amaze me. You must be really smart, friend. 🙂
Thank you, once again. Thank you for letting God use you.
You’re too sweet. Of course, add away! I hope someone will look at my profile in the process. I just changed something there and the count was at 666. (ooh.)
JJ is pursuing things. No job or internship yet, but working toward it. 🙂 And the guys have just begun a summer to be filled with racquetball.
All is well. Hugs.
This was great, I am going to re-read it again and take some notes, thank you…
Connie
GBU
Thank you I love the new back ground as well… I work at Lifeway… It is amazing place to be to help others…
Thank you for your pryers…
What a great study!!
Oh Elaine….you have no clue how I needed this…today. The stone of the right choice—I could go on and on…and actually did…but you don’t need that. So I backspaced it out. What you need to know…is that your words touched a place in my heart that needed a Word—an annoited word from the Lord. Thanks for being His vessel in my life tonight (it’s 11:07 p.m.—no I am not a night owl…but was up late–headed to bed now.) Now I can rest.
Yes, it is amazing how those 5 points are really stuck in my brain from Believing God. To believe God. I mean He is the creator of the universe…
Elaine:
Thanks for the reminder of the 5 points from Beleiving God.
My “man-made” armour that I tend to want to cloak myself with is rationalization/justification. I love how you brought the thought of putting on the man-made armour which weighs us down so that we don’t have strength to fight. I had never really thought about that before.
Marita
Elaine,
God speaks yet again through your gifted pen. So many of your insights resonated in my heart as I read.
I especially loved this portion…
“God has a simple solution for our dilemma. He asks of us what he asked of boy David all those years ago.
To lay down our armor and to cloak ourselves with his.
With a five stone kind of faith that proclaims…
God is who he says he is. God can do what he says he can do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ. God’s Word is alive and active in me.”
Thank you. Believing God is one of her studies I haven’t yet taken, but it’s definitely on my list.
Thanks for your sweet comment today on my blog. What a blessing to know that post encouraged you. = )
P.S. I’m looking forward to continuing to work through the other two days of this amazing study. Still a bit behind…it has been a crazy week!