Depend on God in Battle: David vs Goliath
Are you relying on your own strength and ability, or do you depend on God to get you through the battles of life?
What do you depend on to get you through?
Depending on God Video
Other Videos in this Series on David and Goliath:
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Depend on God in the Battles of Life: Video Transcript:
We have been studying 1 Samuel 17, the passage about David and Goliath, and looking at principles related to how you can beat Giants; how you can beat challenging circumstances in your life using the principles in the Word of God.
David was a young boy, around 17 or 18, and was not skilled in fighting, yet he was able to overcome a giant. He overcame a very powerful man who was skilled in war, strong, experienced and massive.
David put his confidence in God and was able to overcome.
What we want to know is: Can we beat Giants too?
Can you overcome circumstances?
People these days are facing very challenging situations and want to know how to get God involved. How can I get God to help me, to deliver me?
The good news is that, no matter what you are facing, you can trust God. You can put your confidence in God.
If you will do what these people did, you can get the same results. The Word of God teaches us how they got results. God wants us to know how to put our confidence in Him and how to get Him involved in our situations.
We’ve already looked at how important it is to get your focus on God rather than the size of the situation you are facing. We’ve also seen that David spoke about God in terms of certainty.
David declared that God will deliver him. He knew that God was going to come through for him, because he knew what God said in His Word and he knew God.
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There are a number of principles we are still going to look at.
In this video we will examine the question:
- Where are you putting your confidence?
- What do you rely on, depend upon, to get you through?
David’s dependence was upon God. He did not depend on his own strength or ability.
When facing challenges, it’s easy to rely on what you can do, your ability. ‘I can do this. I know how to get through this’.
We are accustomed to depending on our own intellect, our own mind and what we can come up with.
If you are going to get God involved, you need to learn how to depend upon Him, how to trust Him. This means putting our primary reliance for the victory upon Him.
David was depending on God
Let’s look at what David said in 1 Samuel 17, then discuss the principles and how to apply them in our lives.
David did not intend to beat Goliath in his own strength and ability. There’s no way he could have done. He was not strong enough by himself.
However, he didn’t go into battle declaring, ‘I’ve got this and can do it, or I’m well able to fight this man’. Instead, what he said was, ‘The LORD will deliver me’. In other words, I’m depending and relying upon God as the One to get me through.
Other people focus on your inabilities
1 Samuel 17:33
:33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”
In 1 Samuel 17:33, king Saul looked at David and said there was no way he could do it.
Other people may look at you and say there’s no way you will be able to beat what you’re facing. Sometimes that can distract us and make us feel discouraged.
Saul was looking at David’s ability and comparing it to Goliath. He was saying, ‘you’re not big enough’.
Look at what David says in verse 37
1 Samuel 17:37
:37 Moreover David said, “The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”
David was not relying on himself and his own abilities.
1 Samuel 17:45
:45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
Notice how David kept saying God: the Lord, the LORD will do it, the LORD doesn’t save by sword and spear, you come at me with a sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the LORD.
In other words, ‘I am relying and depending upon God’.
David didn’t just declare that, ‘I will win because I’m wonderful and I can do this. Look at how powerful I am’. It was not because of his might or ability. It was because God was fighting for him.
Learn to depend on God
You may face situations where you think you can do it because you are big or clever enough. In those situations you might rely on yourself, but sometimes you may face situations that are too big. They are Giants, bigger than you. There’s no way that you, in yourself, can beat it.
In those situations, we need to realise that we can put our confidence in God. Ideally, you should learn to put your dependence in God in the small things and the big things. Even the things that you feel you can overcome, you can learn to trust God and put your dependence in Him.
Make depending on God a lifestyle, where you look to God and rely on His resources and His ability working through you.
It’s easy to think that you can do it. ‘I’m clever enough. I’m educated enough. I have the resources for this. It’s a completely different way of living to depend upon God. God is the One who is going to help me, to get me through this.
Burdened beyond your own strength
2 Corinthians 1:8
:8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.
One translation says, ‘we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength’.
Sometimes it feels like the pressure that is on you is more than you can cope with. It’s beyond your own strength.
What you do in those situations is important.
- Do you give up because you feel it is going to beat you?
- Or, try to find the strength to do it yourself?
Rather, begin to say, ‘God, I don’t have the strength. This is beyond me, but I know that You can get me through this. I’m going to rely and depend upon You’.
2 Corinthians 1:9
:9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,
Another translation says this, ‘but that was to make us rely, not on ourselves, but on God’.
As humans, we like to rely on ourselves. We like to believe that we can do things by ourselves.
If we really want to get God involved in our lives, if we want to experience more of Him moving, then we need to learn to depend more on Him. It’s possible to rely on yourself, but your abilities are limited. We don’t know everything and we can’t beat everything by ourselves.
What are you leaning on for support?
Proverbs 3:5-6
:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Don’t just lean on your own understanding or resources.
What you lean on is what you are relying upon. If you are leaning upon something, then that is what is holding you up.
We have abilities and understanding, so we can ‘use’ them, but don’t lean on them.
If we want God involved, we need to learn to lean on Him, to trust Him.
Proverbs 3:7
:7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil.
Being wise in your own eyes is saying, ‘I can do this. I can figure my way through this’. Rather trust in the Lord. Take the attitude that you’re going to depend upon Him.
The more you learn to rely upon God, to depend upon Him, the more of Him you will experience in your life.
What are you depending on?
We can rely on ourselves or we can rely on other people. Sometimes we put our confidence in somebody else. When you put your confidence in other people, you may pressure them to come through for you or to do something for you. Other people are limited.
A lot of people want to rely on the government, their job, the economy, their boss or whatever. When those things let you down, if they are what you have been leaning on, you are going to go down with them. You will crumble when they crumble.
God does not crumble. He does not ‘go down’. If you lean on and put your primary dependence upon Him, you can begin to experience more of Him in your life.
Remember the Name of the LORD
Psalm 20:7-8
:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
:8 They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright.
Chariots and horses is man’s strength. That’s the ability of the armies. They bowed down and fell because their confidence was in their chariots and horses.
We have risen. Why? Because of what he said in the previous verse: we remember the name of the LORD our God. We relied on Him.
Man’s ability is not always going to get you through. Your ability won’t always get you through.
Faith in God
Mark 11:22
:22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.”
- Faith is your confidence. Our confidence is to be in Him.
- You can have faith in yourself, in your own ability.
- Faith is not just in a concept or idea. It is in God, in Him.
- You can have faith in an idea or concept.
- Faith can be put in other people.
Learn to put your confidence and faith in God.
We struggle to put our confidence in God because we are so self-reliant. Pride is a part of it too. We want to feel that we can get ourselves through things. We want to feel like we are capable.
Can we rely on God?
Another reason people struggle to put their confidence in God is that they are not convinced they can rely upon Him. We are not convinced that He will actually do anything.
This shows that we don’t know God well enough. The answer to this is that we need to get to know Him. Get to know His Word better.
God has never let anybody down. Time and time again in the Bible, He came through for people. He is someone that you can depend upon. You can put your confidence in Him.
The reason people don’t put their confidence in God is that they don’t know Him well enough to believe that they can.
How do you know you are putting your dependence in God?
One of the important things is: who are you giving credit to for the victory?
Are you saying you got through it because you are wonderful, or because God got you through?
Give Him the credit, even before the battle. You say, ‘I’m going to get through this because God is fighting for me. I’m trusting and relying upon Him’. It’s important to acknowledge that.
Acknowledge where your reliance is.
Every time you feel like you don’t know how you’re going to get through, or it’s too big for you, that’s when you need to remind yourself and say, ‘it might be too big for me, but that’s OK, because I’m depending on God and He’s bigger! I’m relying on Him and He can get me through this’.
The important questions that you need to ask yourself is:
- Where is your confidence and dependence?
- What are you depending upon?
- Are you relying on yourself or on God?
David was relying upon God. His confidence in getting through the battle and beating Goliath was in God. The LORD will do this for me. I depend on Him, trust Him to do it, and that’s why I’m going to win.
Make sure you are depending on God in the battles of life.
Further Studies
- Bible Questions and Answers
- Bible Quiz
- Character of God
- Faith
- Finances
- FromTheseShores Vision
- Gifts and Manifestations of the Spirit
- Healing
- High Legh Church
- In Christ Realities
- Jesus Christ
- Miracles and The Power of God
- Praise and Worship
- Prayer
- Revival & Awakening
- Spiritual Growth
- The Holy Spirit
- The Word of God
- Victory in Christ
