Church isn’t meant to be a once-a-week experience. The Word keeps walking with us through the week.
Welcome back, friends 🤍 Over the next few days, we’re going to continue sitting with this week’s message together through scripture, reflection, prayer, journaling, and practical application. My hope is that these devotionals help us slow down, stay rooted, and carry Sunday’s revelation into everyday life. Let’s dive in!
In this series, we’re looking at the destructive cycle of faithful and unfaithful Kings in Israel. This history, recorded for us in scripture, is a sobering reminder that even the best of human leaders fall short of God’s glorious ideal, and the worst of them can bring ruin on entire nations. This week, we’ll look at the wisest king in Israelite history, and we’ll see how wisdom without application is wasteful. As people of Jesus, we should live our lives according to the wisdom that comes from Heaven. Wisdom is available to us, we just need to follow its lead.
Link to this week’s sermon notes HERE!
Remember Past Victories
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
And all this assembly shall know that the
LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands.
And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
Yesterday, the Lord invited you to examine your heart, not to crush you, but to heal you. Today that inward work turns outward.
Once God searches what is within, He also strengthens you for what is ahead. Through it all, one truth keeps rising. God has brought you through before. You are not standing here by accident. You are standing here as someone who has a memory of mercy.
When David faced Goliath, he did not walk onto that field pretending the giant was small. He remembered that the Lord had already delivered him before, in hidden places no crowd had seen. That memory became courage. Scripture shows again and again that remembering is not sentimental; it is spiritual. To remember rightly is to call to mind the faithfulness of God, the God who kept you, corrected you, carried you, and refused to let your story end in the pit. What God has done before becomes a witness to who He still is.
Memory fuels courage. Not confidence in yourself, but confidence in the Lord who has already proven Himself faithful. When fear says this battle is different, memory answers, Yes, but God is the same. When shame says “you came through with too many scars”, memory says “those scars are not proof of abandonment, but evidence that God preserved you.” When the enemy whispers that “this giant will finish you”, memory points back and says, “There was another night, another hole, another impossible place, and the Lord brought me out.”
Courage grows when you stop measuring the giant and start remembering your God.
So face the present giant! Do not deny it, dramatize it, or bow to it. Name it before the Lord. Then name at least one specific victory God has already given you, one prayer He answered, one season He carried you through, one chain He loosened, one lie He exposed. Speak that memory aloud today as an act of worship. Let remembrance become resistance. Let testimony become strength.
What giant is standing in front of you right now, and what past victory must you remember before you face it?
Let’s pray
Heavenly Father, You are faithful in every season, the God who delivers, sustains, and never forgets Your children. I praise You because Your past mercies remind me that Your strength has not changed.
I confess that I often stare at present giants more than I remember Your former help. I let fear, weariness, and old wounds speak louder than Your faithfulness.
Thank You for carrying me through places I thought would bury me. Thank You for Jesus, whose victory secures my hope and whose grace keeps meeting me even when my courage feels small.
Holy Spirit, help me remember rightly today. Bring to mind what You have done, strengthen my heart, and teach me to face this present giant with worship, obedience, and trust. Amen.
See you tomorrow!
