The shepherd boy didn’t begin his week expecting to face down a blood-thirsty giant anymore than you may be facing an unexpected challenge in your life. How should one cope?

According to the Puritan pastor Henry Airay (c.1560–1616), the people of God should face challenges the same way that David faced Goliath—without fear and drawing confidence from past experiences of God’s faithfulness and the knowledge of God’s steadfast love.

No Fear

We read that David—after having experienced God’s help in his deliverance out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear—did not fear to encounter Goliath, but assured himself that “the Lord who delivered him out of the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver him from the hand of this Philistine.”

In the same way, the children of God—after having felt the love of God in Christ Jesus in their souls and the testimony of the Spirit witnessing to their spirits that they are the sons of God—should not fear to encounter sin or Satan, but should assure themselves that nothing is able to separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, eds. Derek Cooper and Martin Lohrmann, Reformation Commentary on Scripture, OT Vol. V, p. 83.