Lesson 30: God’s Sovereignty Builds Your Faith

1 Samuel 17:8,32-33, 37 - "[Goliath] stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, ‘Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.’ And David said to Saul, ‘Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.’ And David said, ‘The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the LORD be with you!’"

David was eager to take down Goliath. Keep in mind that David was young and not trained as a soldier. So how could such a young man have such a great faith to take on such a huge warrior? David believed this giant was no different than the lions and the bears he fought caring for his sheep. Therefore, David had built a strong faith by having to face many difficulties over the years.

We all want a strong faith. It is just that we do not want to pay the price to get one so we never build the faith we need to face the Goliaths that come our way.

Therefore God, out of His great mercy, sends a few difficulties to help us learn that we can either run and hide and blame others for all our problems, or we can face them head on and become stronger people because of our problems.


A David-like faith only comes by battling your Goliaths, not blaming others for your Goliaths! Every one of us have troubles, and therefore, we all have a choice to make. We can either groan about our problems or grow. We can either whine or we can shine. We can become bitter or we can become better. Shining and becoming better is precisely what God intends for us in all our trials. What makes the difference is hope; and hope only comes when your faith is strong. Your faith only gets strong by facing years of difficulties, like David did.

Therefore, our difficult circumstances are serving as an opportunity to ensure that our faith is built up high to keep the Goliaths from dragging us down! Knowing that God is so Sovereign, that He never makes a mistake, ministers to our hearts.

People of God, if it seems like God has been giving you nothing but a bowl of old oatmeal in life lately, day after day after day, then do not think God is doing you wrong. Give it some time and you will see that bowl full of difficulties was one of the best things He could ever have given you because God is Sovereign. He never ever makes a mistake.

* How has knowing something as basic as God is Sovereign made a difference in your life this week?