Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, October 25, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
The stakes are high, here. Two big armies are on the field, but one guy says, “Fight me for the whole she-bang. Just one on one.” He must have been awfully sure of himself—I mean, Goliath was a giant of a man, after all. It’s no wonder the Israelites were freaked out.
I’m grateful I’ve never faced a situation quite so dire as this. But certainly there have been many times in my life when it’s felt that way, when I’ve thought that if I don’t do something just right, the outcome will be completely catastrophic. It’s a curse of perfectionism. It’s taken consistent effort to come to believe that there is nothing that can’t be worked through, that even if the worse happens, God is there and it will be okay.
We of course know how this fight turns out, and not everything in life turns out the same way. But we do not have to take on the belief that everything rests on the next action we, all by ourselves, take. We are not alone on whatever battlefield we stand on, no matter who or what we are facing off with.
Do I sometimes forget to rely on God when faced with a seemingly impossible situation?