Naively confident

 ‘Look at him!’ they said to each other. ‘Listen to his challenge! King Saul has promised to give a big reward to the man who kills him; the king will also give him his daughter to marry and will not require his father’s family to pay taxes.’

David asked the men who were near him, ‘What will the man get who kills this Philistine and frees Israel from this disgrace? After all, who is this heathen Philistine to defy the army of the living God?’ (verses 25,26)

Read 1 Samuel 17:17-30

How on earth can a young boy be so naïve as to suggest that the enemy can be beaten? How can we have that same innocent naivety that gives us unstoppable confidence of survival in the face of the evil we see and experience in our lives?

David sums it up in one true expression: ‘Who is this heathen Philistine to defy the army of the living God’ The living God. David is confident of prevailing against the evil he faces because he knows that God is living, not dead. God isn’t an idea, a philosophy, a code of behaviour, a dead hero but a living Lord.

The living Lord Jesus is with you and promises to be with you through all evil and suffering: e is a real person who is really alive and truly present. ln him you will prevail against all the temptation and evil you face. Of this you can be ‘naively confident’.

Lord Jesus, give me simple faith to trust in your strong word of promise that you are alive and present with me. Amen.

by Adrian Kitson, in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)

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