Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Tanya Wilmuth.

Of all the stories in David's life, this is the one we know best.

It has everything.

It has a weak underdog, a terrifying giant, there's fear, courage, there's risk,

and ultimately, victory. And the way it's usually told makes us feel like we can be the hero,

and we love that. Look at David. He's just a kid with the slingshot. He's young, inexperienced,

he's completely outmatched. And then there's Goliath. He's over

eight feet tall, armored, confident, intimidating. They face off in a duel. They are both just

one life standing in for an entire army. Why not let one man die instead of everyone?

And the courage we see in both of them is where most of the stories who grew up hearing landed,

where they stopped, where they even fell short.

Don't be like Goliath, whose courage was built on experience and comparison.

Do be like David, whose courage came through weakness and dependence.

But if we only look at these characters and not through

them, not to the true hero of the Bible, Jesus Christ, we will be left with an example of

counterfeit courage. We will be left to depend on ourselves to be more of something we can't be

without a Savior. We will have counterfeit courage and not true

courage. Let's start with Goliath. His confidence came from everything you'd expect. Years of

battle, experience, he had physical power, he had complete control of the situation, or so it seemed.

1 Samuel 17 versus 41 to 44 go like this.

It says, and the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield bear in front of him.

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