Hey! Allow me take two minutes of your time today. Is that okay? Great!! We recently looked at how smart a man Goliath was and the lessons we could pick from him. One cannot speak about Goliath without looking at his arch nemesis, David. Today we will look at one of the three Voices David overcame to overcome Goliath. Are you ready?
Let’s start with the Voice of Family. Eliab, oldest brother of David scolded David simply because David was curious about the man who was defying the name of God (interestingly to which none of the soldiers could do anything about). In his very own limitation, he spoke harshly to David for which David replied, “what have i done now? Is there not a cause?” (1 Sam 17:29).
I find it interesting. Was David the only one enraged by Goliath defying and blaspheming against God? Was there no man with even a bit of Holy Anger to face this uncircumcised Philistine? Could not the armies send for Samuel to enquire of the Lord what to be done? Couldn’t the army just press on and battle just as they had in the past? Was the victories of the past not testimony enough for the current situation to be dealt with? This and many more questions fill my mind but as David was concerned about the situation, the voice of a family member had to speak against him.
Beloved, I loved what David did in the verse 30. David turned away and focused on the matter at hand. How many times have we been suppressed and lost our focus because a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, an uncle or aunt, spoke against a good course that was of interest to us? Will not heeding to their voice be classified as being disrespectful? Well yes it may be (or better still, will be) classified as such but that should not make us lose focus on the goal ahead. Sometimes it is those closest to us who know very little about our capabilities and as such shoot us down before we even attempt flying.
Dear one, I’m not saying go and be disrespectful and reject every counsel that comes from family but it is for you to determine if their utterances are good counsel from a place of seeking your well-being, or their utterances are just to chain you down and make you feel irrelevant. It takes a lot of courage to overcome this particular voice of family. You need to ask yourself if there is really a course for you to ignore that negative voice. May God grant you the grace to be able to overcome this voice as you are likely to hear this voice the most.