But I’m Just a Nothing

Do you ever feel unequipped? Unprepared? A nothing in the face of the mounting problems around about you? It seems the enormous amount of conflict encircling you is far more than you can handle? The weight and the severity of the problems are more than you feel you can ever overcome?

Sometimes you find yourself throwing up your hands in defeat, in essence, revealing your most hidden fears that you’re a nothing? That’s okay. There is nothing inherently wrong with those feelings! I don’t believe that most ever truly discover victory until they have first discovered a sense of defeat.

Let me bring some clarity to this as it may be shaking some of you up a bit. Think about David for a moment. He was a small shepherd boy. He was untrained militarily. He had never been forced to encounter a human enemy in battle. He had no knowledge of military weaponry and tactics. As far as being a warrior was concerned, David was a nothing.

When he heard the giant, Goliath, taunting the Israelites and cursing His God, what he did have sprang to life. This boy of nothing was not about to allow the evil one to have the victory. His heart for God and for his people was gigantic. Regardless of how loud he could shout or how big he appeared, David refused to allow this enemy of God and of his people to continue to carry on with this wicked behavior.

As David approached the battlefield armed with a slingshot and a few stones, the giant stepped out and stared him up and down. The Scripture tells us: “the Philistine despised him…and said to David, ‘Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?’ Then he cursed David by his gods. ‘Come here,’ the Philistine called to David, ‘and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts!’” ( 1 Samuel 17:42-44 HCSB). In the eyes of the giant and all the spectators standing around gloating over the situation, David was a defeated nothing!

The problem with what others may be thinking is their thoughts can be dead wrong. David entered the battlefield with defeat written all over him. His size, his capabilities, his lack of training and experience—all signs of defeat.

The naysayers failed to realize what David did have. He was not dependent upon his weaponry, skills or abilities. “David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with a dagger, spear, and sword, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel’s armies- you have defied Him’” (v. 45). David recognized he was a nothing within himself; but, he also recognized what it was that made him a something! It was the power of God residing in him and working through him that gave him confidence to face off with the giant.

He didn’t falter or fret as he approached the behemoth; rather, he declared with complete confidence: “Today, the Lord will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, cut your head off, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God, and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s. He will hand you over to us” (vv. 46-47).

It is God’s power that turns our nothingness into something mighty and powerful. It is God’s power that enables you and I to stand against whatever mountainous problem looms in our path. It is God’s power that defeats the giants that life throws at us day after day after day. And, it is for His glory and for His name’s sake that we are victorious!

Quit looking at yourself the way the world views you. Maybe you have been criticized, ridiculed, beat-down and overwhelmed by the giants of this world? Maybe you see yourself as a nothing? The truth is: GOD sees you as a something—something worth His Son, Jesus Christ, dying for. As you learn to turn your problems, difficulties, hurts, trials and tribulations over to Him, He will enable you to walk away in total victory. While the world views you as defeated, GOD has already declared you a victor. And that, my friend, is all that matters!

Scripture Reading: “Be gracious to me, God, for man tramples me; he fights and oppresses me all day long. My adversaries trample me all day, for many arrogantly fight against me. When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not fear. What can man do to me? They twist my words all day long; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps while they wait to take my life. Will they escape in spite of such sin? God, bring down the nations in wrath. You Yourself have recorded my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your records? Then my enemies will retreat on the day when I call. This I know: God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not fear. What can man do to me? I am obligated by vows to You, God; I will make my thank offerings to You. For You delivered me from death, even my feet from stumbling, to walk before God in the light of life” (Psalm 56 HCSB).

Personal Prayer: Father, today I find myself overwhelmed by a mountain of troubles. Problems are everywhere. I need Your help bad right now. The giants are roaring and my soul is in dire need of some relief. I feel like a nothing and I know this is not how You desire for me to be. In You is victory! In You is the power to overcome! Lord, please grant me Your relief as You step into my problems and alleviate them. Lord, I call upon You. I trust in You and I believe in Your victory over all my issues today. Grant me Your strength, Your wisdom, your help in my time of desperation. I lay it all down before You and walk away knowing that I am walking away in victory right now…in Jesus’ name…AMEN!