Are you ready to face your Goliath

Are You Ready to Face Your Goliath?

Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:34–49

There are moments in life when a challenge stands before us so large, so loud, and so intimidating that it feels like a Goliath. It taunts us. It exposes our fears. It reminds us of our limitations. And yet, Scripture invites us to look at this familiar story not as a children’s tale of courage, but as a blueprint for how ordinary people overcome extraordinary battles.

David was not a king when he faced Goliath.

He was not a warrior.

He was not trained, armed, or experienced in battle.

He was simply a shepherd boy — but a shepherd boy who knew his God.

And that made all the difference.

1. Bravery: The Courage That Comes From Knowing Who Walks With You

David didn’t brag about his strength. He simply stated the truth: he had faced lions and bears before, and God had delivered him every single time. His bravery wasn’t reckless; it was rooted in history — his history with God.

Most of us would run from a hungry lion. David ran toward it.

Not because he was fearless, but because he was faithful.

Your Goliath may not be a giant with armor. It may be a diagnosis, a financial burden, a broken relationship, a habit you can’t shake, or a fear you’ve carried for years. Bravery doesn’t mean you feel strong. It means you step forward because you know God is with you.

2. Humility: Giving God the Credit Before the Victory Comes

David didn’t say, “I killed the lion and the bear.”

He said, “The Lord who rescued me… will rescue me again.”

Humility is not thinking less of yourself — it is thinking rightly about yourself.

David knew he was capable, but he also knew he was not the source of his capability.

Humility positions us to receive strength that is not our own.

3. Faith: Trust Built on Yesterday’s Deliverance

David’s faith wasn’t blind. It was built on evidence.

God had shown up before.

God had protected him before.

God had empowered him before.

So David believed — not because the situation was small, but because his God was big.

Your faith grows the same way: by remembering the lions and bears God has already defeated in your life.

4. Complete Dependence: Choosing God Over Human Armor

Saul tried to equip David with armor, sword, and helmet.

David tried them on — and immediately took them off.

Why?

Because they didn’t fit.

Because they weren’t his.

Because they weren’t what God had used in his life before.

David chose dependence over equipment.

He chose God over strategy.

He chose trust over technique.

Sometimes the hardest part of facing your Goliath is removing the armor others put on you — expectations, advice, pressure, comparison — and standing before God with nothing but faith.

So… Are You Ready to Face Your Goliath?

Your Goliath is not the problem.

Your dependence on God is the real battle.

Victory doesn’t begin when the giant falls.

Victory begins when you decide to trust God completely.

Like David, you don’t need to be the strongest, the smartest, or the most prepared.

You just need to be the most surrendered.

The battle is not yours. It never was.

The battle belongs to the Lord.

Attitude of Gratitude : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Whatever our lot in life, we have a choice of gloating, groaning or gratitude.

"An Attitude of Gratitude is a regular habit to express appreciation for all different parts of life, no matter how small. If you concentrate on what you have, you'll always have more". https://www.yourlifeyourvoice.org 

While this is not a mantra, it is a good principle  because such an attitude creates a positive mindset and self healing, mentally and physically.

David did this regularly, thanking and glorifying our creator. Like David we too can choose to give thanks for ourselves, what we have and our life on earth. Feel positive. Feel good. Psalm 100, expresses this attitude. We can read it, pray it or sing it.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Understandably, people who are in some depth of despair, may not feel like praising and thanking anyone, least of all God. But in the experience of others who too have been in despair and sadness, if we develop this as a habit, over time our entire attitude to ourselves and  the world around us changes. 

Thanking and praising God, helps us to get up once again and move on and above all engages God in our daily life. 

What Happened to Grace? Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection.

Romans 12:18 : If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Lately there has been a lot of talk of Will Smith and Chris Rock. While that's a topic for the press and magazines, one wonders what happened to a thing called grace?

As Christians, We expect grace from God. We pray for it and sometimes demand it. But what about us showing grace to our fellow men? If we expect grace, we need to practice grace ourselves. Humility, humor, forgiveness, gratitude,, compassion, accepting people for who they are, etc., everything grace comprises of are forgotten, it seems. We have a right to hit someone, the right to abuse, the right to take revenge - and we think we also have the right to Gods grace? Really? 

You may ask  what happens when someone hurts us? Such are the testing times of our own grace and faith in Gods word who said - "Vengeance is mine". It is not ours.

The Bible is full of verses which tell us that we need to share grace.

Ephesians 4:29 
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

1 Peter 4:10 
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

Matthew 5:7 
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

God's grace is free for us to to receive. At the same time it is free for us to share as well.  If you want to practice grace in your daily life, here is a good resource:  

https://themom-forum.com/bloglist/ways-to-practice-grace/

So far as Romans 12:18 goes, the responsibility to practice and show grace is ours. Lets find grace and share it. 

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection: K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S? Keeping it simple and straightforward. 

Lets' be honest. A lot of u are reading this because of the anagram? Wondering what it stands for, attaching different meanings etc., and in short making it a complex puzzle. That's natural. We love complexity and I call it the complexity syndrome.

So many business organizations also go through this complexity phenomenon as well, with the result they lose focus on what they started out to do.

And that is what happens in Christian life too. We can complicate it so much with dos and don'ts that we lose focus on the end. The means become the end.

For example, we are taught to follow the commandments, which most of us think are 10. Did you know there are 613 commandments in the Bible? Can I follow all 613? Probably not. But Christ made is simple and straightforward when He said in Mark 12: 29- 31: 


The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”


These two commandments sum up the all. If we love our God only, we place him above all else - money, time, people, family, etc, not letting anything or anyone take a priority over God.

 
If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will never ever hurt him or her or even think about it. Adultery, murder, covetousness - all are removed.

 
You get the picture. Let's not fall into the complexity syndrome and end up with nothing. Let not the means God has given us to live by, become the end.

Mid Week Message : The Two Principles of Forgiveness, Mrs. S. David, Guest Speaker

Our mid week message by Mrs. S. David inspires forgiveness as she talks about the two principles of forgiveness. 

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection : The Other side of Failure

There are times when the heavens seem shut and drought and barrenness and failure surround us in whatever we do. It must happen to everyone and we have nothing to do but wonder what went wrong? At such times friends, relatives etc offer no consolation. They can't because they themselves may not know the pain or outcome.

But there is one who knows. One Who had gone through worse and yet survived. Job. Job's story in the Bible, is the perfect example of holding God high, irrespective of His circumstances. Looking beyond the obvious as we say. Today his story can help us beyond and to the other side of failure and fear.

Of special mention are verses Job 5:17-26 

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

These verses give strength when they say that while we may go through the worst - the worst cannot kill us. 

We may not be spared the situation, but the situation cannot destroy us.
Today if you are going through such a phase in life, it maybe a good idea to read through the book of Job.

Are we prejudiced or racist? Pastor Rajiv's Message for the week:

It is shocking that in Christendom, slavery  and racism was rampant in America and Europe and other parts of the world, in some form or the other,   till abolished in the mid to end of the 1800s. But, in spite of several commandments, scriptures, parables etc in the Bible, against it's practice, in some cases even equating it with sin, the concept of race supremacy prevailed, leading to world wars and bilateral wars. Even now, name calling some one on their color or race or looks is prevalent. 

God is not black or white or yellow or brown. God is a spirit. He has not made anyone superior. 

Today, Pastor Rajiv talks about prejudices, from a biblical perspective and how we as Christians need to respond. 

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection: How to turn a blessing into a curse

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.”— Romans 1:25

Most of us have experienced highs and lows in life. We have experienced Gods blessings as well as downturns when the heavens seem to be shut. While that is a topic for another time, today I was prompted to share how we tend to misuse a blessing. I assure you it's very easy.

How many times, when we are blessed, say we got a promotion at work, do we imagine it is a reward for our work. We thank God for being recognized, but do we recognize God as being the cause, and we the effect and not the cause. Imagined strengths sometimes lead us to misplaced thanksgiving, and misplaced praise.

Self proclamation is another dangerous trap we sometimes fall into. The servant is not greater than the master and we are not greater than our Lord, no matter how great our sermon is, or how much we give to charity. All that was given by God. We were just a channel. Yet, while in word we acknowledge this, in deed we sometimes do not.

Our blessings are to be shared so that they become a blessing for someone else. Pass it on. Yet, do we pass it one? Apart from tithes do we actively look to pass it on?

Our God is a jealous God and He does not like it when praises and thanks giving which were rightfully His, to be diverted to someone else, including ourselves. It is to our detriment that we may give glory to the wrong person. In fact, when we 

God does not need praise. There is no lack in him. There is no “need” that God has which must be satisfied. He is to be praised because we must be grateful to the our creator and the author of our story. 

"Also, praising God is good for the one who praises him. There is something spiritually beneficial when we humble ourselves and praise him. There’s a spiritual benefit to worshiping him, to speak of him in terms of adoration. Somehow, someway God is there with us in our praises to him" - Matt Slick , Carm.org. 

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections : Root Cause Analyses

Root cause Analyses is a very popular management tool to find out the actual cause of a problem or a fault so that by rectifying it, the resultant problem gets solved.

But did you know that the first Root cause analyses was done by Jesus Christ when he said in Mathew 5 29and 30 -
"If your right eye causes you to stumble,(B) gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble,(C) cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell".

Many of us take these commands so literally, we end up ignoring them. After all, if I have stolen something, am I to cut off my hands? Not at all. What these verses mean is to identify and remove the root cause of what has made me steal.

Removing the root cause could be very simple or extremely complicated. If I am an alcoholic and my friends circle is influencing me to remain there and not get better, I need to change my friends. On the other hand if I am a habitual liar, it will be way more difficult and not as simple as changing my environment.

The key here is honest identification of the root cause, no excuses, and honest removal of it. This sounds easy but is extremely difficult and it maybe a good idea to ask God to show us the mirror, to help us to identify it and thereafter remove it. It can be days, months, years before the root is finally killed. But what is critical is 2 steps in the process.

1. Decide to do away with that root cause and stick to that decision, no matter how strong the desire. There maybe backsliding but don't give up. Get up and start again.

2. Don't leave any empty holes. As soon as the root or even a part of it is removed, fill that void with Gods word and Jesus's presence. If you don't, that void will soon become a bed of weeds and killer roots.

Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection: The World is a Lonely Place

“Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8.

Do you remember the story of David and Goliath? This small fellow, unknown for any war like skills, took on and defeated Goliath, the champion fighter. Alone, unsupported but only cheered on by Saul's army.(Kind of reminds me of our current day situation between Ukraine and Russia).

Who in this world could be lonelier than King David? Hunted by his king, death of his best friend, his children turning on him, his favorite wife being his out of sin, her baby dying, constantly at war....

But there was one who never left his side and that was God. David is known as the man after Gods own heart, because while he may have been lonely, he sought God day and night and God was always there. . He tried to obey, he took punishment where due and all in all had a constant and daily relationship with God.

In Psalm 25:16, he prays - Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.

David had a relationship with God. And in that relationship he had someone he could always turn to. He may have been lonely at times but he was never alone. Now that may sound funny, having a relationship with someone not seen. But in this world where we are isolated and depend on social media and internet based social networking that is not strange. We are constantly trying to build a relation with someone we have never met in person nor are we sure he or she actually exist.

We too can build a relationship with God. Talk to Him and feel His presence all around us as we live in His creation. A very good resource to help us understand how David related to God, can be found https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/prayer/how-can-we-apply-and-pray-davids-prayer-in-our-own-lives.html

Maybe we can make him our role model. Meanwhile to start with I can recommend David's prayer of thanks giving in 2 Samuel 7:18-29. 

We all can have a great friend in Jesus. Let's send him a friend request today.

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