Mensa Otabil - The Courage for Great Things
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Welcome to day number 19 of our 40 days of power. This week we are looking at building capacity. God wants us to grow our capacity to do big things for Him, so we’re going to look at the kinds of capacities we must develop, and our prayer will be focused in these areas.
Today we look at 1 Chronicles 12:8, and it reads: «Some Gadites joined David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for battle who could handle shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions and were as swift as gazelles on the mountain.» It’s a very colorful description of the people who worked with David. Now, David was thrown into leadership at a very young age. As a teenager, he brought down the Philistine giant Goliath and was hailed as a national hero. Unfortunately, the king of Israel at the time, Saul, had problems with David, so David was thrown into exile. In this harsh environment, David had to survive.
How do you survive in a harsh environment? As a young man, your king is against you, and you have literally been thrown into enemy land. How do you survive? David started gathering people, and some of the individuals who came to him were not the best material, but he made the most of them. Here is a description of the kinds of people that came to David, their training, and their actions.
Three things I want you to pay attention to are that the people who came to David were men of courage. The Bible describes them as men of valor, another word for bravery. Brave people! In this season, we expect God to give us the capacity for courage-the courage to face things that are difficult, tough, and hard. Because if you don’t have courage, you’re going to run from a battle when it starts. But God has not given us the spirit of fear; we don’t run from the battle, we run into battle. Like the men of David, we have the bravery to face every challenge that comes against us.
The second thing that you see about the people who gathered around David is that they had expertise. The passage describes them as people who could handle shield and spear; they were expert warriors. They had skill; they had the ability to work with different tools and succeed with them. You know, everybody has something they have to work with. For these people, it was shield and spear. For you, it may be a musical instrument, a laptop, an iPad, or some equipment you work with. It may be a welding machine. Whatever tool you have in your hand, you have to be an expert at it. If you’re recording, you have to be an expert with the camera. You can’t have a tool in your hand and underutilize it. That’s what we see about David’s men: they knew how to use the tools in their hands. I pray that whatever tool you have, God will give you mastery over it and the capacity to use that tool to the greatest advantage.
So we’re praying for courage, we’re praying for expertise with the tools in our hands, and the third thing we see about the men with David is that they were fast; they had speed. The passage says they were like gazelles, which are very fast. They could move very swiftly; they could wreak the greatest damage with their speed. If you’re slow, if you’re lazy, if you react very slowly, you can’t survive in the space that God has given you. So today, in your prayer, you’re going to pray for courage. You’re going to pray that God will help you to use whatever tool you work with to the greatest advantage, and you’re going to pray that God will give you the ability to move quickly, fast, and decisively-not hesitating, not procrastinating, and not waiting for things to happen before you do what you have to do.
We are building that capacity today. Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, increase my capacity to courageously do great things with the little I have in my hand. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»