LET'S ROLL! -- Devotional for June 15, from "Good Seeds"

Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, “Come, let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised Philistines. Perhaps the Lord will work in our favor, for He is not restricted to save by many or by few.” (I Samuel 14:6)

There are two kinds of Christians in this world: First, those who say, “Let’s sit still and see what God will do.” And Second, those who say, “Let’s roll and see what God will do.” Either way, we know it’s right to let God do what only He can do. But what about man’s responsibility in the equation? The first way could be considered the best way if by it we are saying we won’t trust in the arm of flesh, but only in the strong arm of our God. And so we wait on Him to act, for our good, for His glory, by His timetable. But too often it is not really that at all, but rather the coward’s way, or the sluggard’s way, both of whom would blame the sovereign choices and deeds of God for their own inaction. This was King Saul: when Goliath stepped forward with his arrogant challenge, big tall Saul never felt so small, and his stunted faith manifested itself in fearful inaction. That’s when Little David piped up, saying, “How dare this uncircumcised behemoth insult the name of our God like that! Let me at him! I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’ve got to do something. And maybe when I do, God will strengthen me to gain a victory!” And of course we know what happened. We can’t always tell the difference, either in others or ourselves, between cocky self-assurance and God-inspired confidence, but God always can. David went forth in the name of His God, armed with a sling, and by an aim guided by the Lord, single-handedly brought that giant down to the ground. David is a picture of the second kind of saint, the one who says, “I’ll take action, the best I know how, and then just see what God will do.” Just a few years earlier, David’s new friend Jonathan, the son of David’s old enemy, Saul, finds himself in a similar situation. The king was in his wait and see mode. Not much was happening in the battle; nobody losing, nobody winning. “Are we at war, or not?” thought Jonathan. Yes, sometimes the right thing to do is to wait out the enemy, or at least to draw back and plan our strategy. But how often is our waiting and debating just another form of cowardice and faithlessness? We could accuse Jonathan of youthful impatience, or just plain boredom, but we dare not say so when we hear his words of confident, proactive faith to his armor-bearer: “We don’t know if God will honor our attack with a victory, but what we do know is that He doesn’t need a whole army to do it! Look what He did through David. There’s twice as many of us here, little buddy. Let’s roll!” (see verse 14 for the results).