The Israelite army is pretending to be in battle.  Each morning they put on their armor, gather up their weapons and form up in position.  They shout the battle cry and march out into position opposite the Philistine army.  Goliath shouts out his challenge and the Israelites look at the ground, at th birds in the air, off into space.  They do everything except face their enemy or each other.

Sometimes in our lives or in our churches we can take the same approach.  We can sense that something needs done but we are unable or unwilling to see or do anything about it.  Good examples would be a lack of baptisms and fewer or no new professions of faith.  We are aware that these are signs of a dying church but investing the time and energy into young families and into unchurched people in new ways is scary and intimidating.  We stay right where we are.  And we line up each Sunday morning in our pews and see the same familiar faces.

In our own lives we can also get stuck.  In a really busy season of life we allowed our daily discipline of reading and meditating on God’s word to slip to the back burner.  That extra fifteen minutes of sleep or the extra time in front of the television sure is nice and prevents us from giving our time to our faith. Maybe we play the ‘next week’ game – next week I’ll get back to daily time with God.  We somehow think we are not ready to face that giant today.

God is ready every day.  He calls to us every day to die to self and serve Him alone.  He is present each day, waiting for us to engage.  It is up to us to step up to the line with a willing servant’s heart and to say, “Here I am Lord.”  With God on our side, who can stand against us?  What giant is ready to fall today?

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 17: 19-23