What to Do When You Feel Small

When King David was a boy, a giant called Goliath came against the armies of Israel and the soldiers were terrified to fight him (see 1 Samuel 17). But David, who was a young shepherd at this point in his life, came forward and asked, “What will be done for the man who slays Goliath?”

Now, that was a pretty bold move on David’s part. In fact, his oldest brother, Eliab, began to mock him, saying something to the effect of, “What are YOU doing here? You’re no soldier. Don’t you have a few sheep to tend to?”

But David was pretty used to that kind of attitude coming from his brothers—and he already knew who he was in his relationship to God.

So how did he respond? It says in verse 30 that “David turned away from Eliab.” In other words, he just went on doing what he was doing. That’s exactly what we need to learn how to do.

See, when we believe we’ve got an assignment from God—a dream, a goal, a plan or a vision—we need to stop thinking about what everybody else says we can’t do and just focus on who God says we are and what God says we can do.