What's in your shepherd's bag?

After Ashley told me that she would kill me (see previous post), I thought it would be good to go back and read the story of David and Goliath. While reading, I was struck by the passage pasted below. I was reminded of how we often face a battle and try to put on the "armor" that has worked for someone else instead of sticking with the armor which God has already uniquely gifted us. Sometimes others, with every good intention, try to put their armor on us.

In this passage, we read that Saul was seeking to protect and equip David by dressing David in Saul's own tunic and giving him a coat of armor and a bronze helmet. However, David was best off using the skills and tools he was already gifted and trained to use.

My prayer is that I will spend less time being like Saul-pushing my approach on others and more time like David, recognizing the talent-set the Lord has given me and actually USING it to allow HIS power to be seen. For after all, "the battle is the Lord's."

1 Samuel 17:32-40

32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."

33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.