Thursday, August 2, 2012

One Small Bush

A champion named Goliath…came out of the Philistine camp.  He was over nine feet tall…Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks… ‘Why do you come out and line up for battle?’… and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified” 1 Samuel 17:4, 8, 11.

When I was a little girl we moved into a new home where each of us was fortunate enough to have our own room.  The blessings of my new found privacy were interrupted one night when I awoke and became terrified.  The light of the moon and the shape of the trees were casting scary shadows that wrapped from the ceiling to the floor.  As my heart pounded, my legs became paralyzed with fear as I lay wide-eyed in my bed.  I could not move and certainly wasn’t going to approach the huge shadow.   My security returned when daylight revealed that the shadow had no substance and my fear was all in vain.

Scripture states that ‘all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.’  They had all bought into the fear and were paralyzed by this taunting image.  It took a small boy with a sling and a stone to defeat the nine foot giant.  It wasn’t just any stone…it was the cornerstone that held up his entire life…his faith in God.  So this is what the Sovereign LORD says:  See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed’ Isaiah 28:16-17.

What nine foot Goliath is casting its intimidating shadow over your life?  What fears and threats in your circumstances taunt you convincing you they are bigger than your ability to bear?  When will the sunrise come and reveal the real size of the issue instead of an exaggerated image?  Stones of fear seem to be boomerangs that always return to us.  We must select stones of faith instead of fear so that when the darkness casts the ugly lies we sling truths.  One stone…‘God will not forsake me’…another stone…‘The Lord fights for me.’  By replacing our stones of fear with God’s stones of truth we see the image for what it really is…the light of the moon shining against one small bush.


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