Sometimes when I have gone to prayer, I have felt like I only had a small slingshot in my hand.  No big, impressive sword.  Just some stones and a slingshot.  And I’m not even a good aim!  When my older sister Mary Anne was a newspaper carrier, she became amazing on what she could do on a ten-speed bike!  She is left-handed and has a deadly aim (I know this from personal squabbles with her as we were children)!  In record time, she was able to speed through her whole paper route, never once getting down.  I inherited the same paper route a few years later, and my style was different.  I found that I was more of the tortoise than the hare.  I painstakingly walked from house to house, making sure I followed the instructions of every customer.  The paper route took me many more hours than it took my sister, but it all paid off when I was the first girl paper carrier of the year in Frankfort, Indiana.

Yep, sometimes I’m a plodder.  My aim’s not always good, and I don’t always know what to do with a slingshot.  I’m asking God to show me how to more effectively take aim, to help me gather more sharp stones, and to take down more giants (and definitely not to aim my stones at the other soldiers who are on my side!).  Not to run away when my heart is breaking.

I have read that those ancient slingshots were actually an effective weapon.  Surprisingly, these weapons had the potential to be accurate and deadly.  They really were used by more people than just David.  However, in I Samuel 17, I see that David’s slingshot did not impress anyone, and my slingshot feels pretty unimpressive also.  But the Word says that the weapons of our warfare are MIGHTY THROUGH GOD to the pulling down of strongholds!  Mighty through God is the key here. 

Lord, don’t let me be discouraged and put down my weapon!  Help me not to get my eyes on the size of the giant until I am distracted from taking ground.  Help me to search for stones in the brook, and as I pick up these stones, help me to see victory…by faith.

Don’t lay down your slingshot!