Blog

The “Trail Guide” devotional is used by our adult leaders of grade school groups in Quest as a way to prepare their hearts and minds for the topics we will be covering with the children on the weekend.  We have made them available here to help our parents of grade-schoolers engage with their children around the topics we are discussing and also for anyone else that might be blessed by following along.

EXTREME MAKEOVER, Section 4, Lesson 2: Know Your Strengths

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” There are many wonderful theological messages to be gleaned from the account of David’s defeat of Goliath. One message that should not be taken from it, however, is that David was a skinny kid, unprepared for battle, who despite his overconfidence was used by God to miraculously defeat an experienced warrior. Many times, the way we teach this to children leaves them with the idea that they to can face the metaphorical “giants” in their lives if they just believe. Let’s take a closer look at the account before we get the children in our care metaphorically body slammed by their giants.

The key to this account is not knowledge of God and His covenant promises to Israel. We know that King Saul and the soldiers of Israel would have known well these promises. So David’s advantage was not superior knowledge. What David had that set him apart was experience with God. David makes the case to Saul when he says, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” David had high confidence of victory because his experience with God had shown him that God was with him. But it should not be missed that David had significant skills and strengths. We know that David was a shepherd, and from our understanding of the Ancient Near East, we know that one tool of a shepherd for protecting his flock was the sling. We also know from scripture and other sources that a skilled slinger could be deadly accurate at distances of 250 meters (nearly 3 football field lengths!) Here is the math. David had been given strength and skill by God plus David knew God’s promises plus David had experienced God’s faithfulness equals one headless Philistine warrior.

Our children need to know God, know and develop the strengths He has given them, and put those into action to experience God’s faithfulness. Strength that comes from God can be trusted absolutely. That is a formula for changing the world for Christ.

Just for fun: Watch this Israeli sling demonstration on YouTube. You will never read David and Goliath the same
way again. http://youtu.be/xwlZJ5IlN68

“The Lord is my strength and my shield. My
heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.””    -Psalm 28:7a

 

MEDITATING ON THE WORD:

Matt 25:14-30 | Eph 6:10
Ps.139:14 | 1 Cor 10:31
Col 3:17,23 | 1 Samuel 17