The Paw of the Lion

Gratitude isn’t mushy—it’s mighty.

Anyone who celebrated America’s Thanksgiving holiday yesterday put into practice a spiritual principle of unspeakable might. Gratitude isn’t a sappy, saccharine habit for the emotional nearly so much as it is gargantuan power for warriors. When David offered to fight Goliath on behalf of the unstable king and his cowardly army, the Bethlehem shepherd boy’s faith didn’t arise from the mist of wishful thinking. Instead, David’s soul was convinced of God’s present faithfulness because of God’s past faithfulness. David remembered how God had empowered him to defeat the wild animals who sought to ravage his father’s flocks and, as he activated his memory, his heart surged with faith to defeat the Philistine predator who taunted God’s flock.

I bless you, therefore, with David’s kind of memory—a faith-building commemoration of God’s faithfulness. Receive today’s blessing rooted in 1 Samuel 17:37:

They all told David he couldn’t do it—

         He was too young, too small, too inexperienced

         To face the Philistine giant.

         Maybe you’ve heard it too.

         You’re too unskilled, too unschooled, too unscarred—

         Too … you name it.

         But you know what they don’t know.

         You’ve seen what they haven’t seen.

         Like the Bethlehem shepherd,

         You’ve faced your lions and bears.

         You’ve felt the adrenaline pumping, the mind racing,

         As you groped for a stone for your slingshot

         And then! from seemingly nowhere,

         God’s grace arrived, right on time.

         I bless you to remember how God

         Has enabled you to endure every past predicament

         So you will have courage to confront today’s giant.

         The God who delivered you from the paw of the lion

         And the paw of the bear

         Will deliver you from the hand of the enemy again!

And that’s the Gospel!