The Level You’re Faithful To

The story of David is this beautiful example that sometimes, the best thing you can do is be obedient to the last thing God has called you to.

David is anointed as King over Israel at a very young age, but his time as King doesn’t begin immediately after his anointing ceremony. Rather, he must wait until the current King, Saul, is removed. In the meantime, David goes back to faithfully fulfilling the duty that God had set out before him prior to him being named King. 

That duty is being a shepherd.  

So, David’s off tending to sheep when his father Jesse requests a task of David. I imagine being David and my father summoning me and thinking, “this is it! He’s going to send me off to battle. I’m finally going to get to do what is was BORN to do!”

Not quite.

“Sometimes, the best thing you can do is be obedient to the last thing God has called you to.”

1 Samuel, chapter 17, verse 17,

One day Jesse said to David, “Take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers. And give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring back a report on how they are doing.” David’s brothers were with Saul and the Israelite army at the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.

Fight for Israel?!

No.

Take some bread to your brothers and cheese to their captain, find out what’s going on and come back and tell me how everyone is doing.

BIG SIGH.

“I’m David, the NEXT KING OF ISRAEL. I wasn’t born to be a messenger! I was born to be a KING! I wasn’t born to deliver bread and cheese. I was born to lead, and to fight, and to rule!”

I can only imagine how discouraged David must have felt. I mean here he is with this anointing and yet, he doesn’t even have the authority to fight in this war—his war if we’re being technical. 

How often do we find ourselves in this position?

“GOD! I’M BETTER THAN THIS!”

And God is looking back and saying, “no, you’re only as good as the faithfulness you show towards me.”

See, some of you are reading this and you’re wondering why God hasn’t trusted you to get into the college that you want to, or to have the job you want, or to have as much money, or influence, or fame, or followers as you want.

What if God is looking back at you saying, “my son/my daughter, I can’t even trust you to obey your parents on the first time. I can’t even trust you to be a good example among your friends, I can’t even trust you to go one weekend without getting wasted and then coming to church and pretending that everything is okay. And you want me to trust you with all of that?!”

See, God will only trust you to the level you’re faithful to.

And this is the test that we see David continue to pass. David goes and does what his father asks of him, and because of his obedience he’s put into a position where when he arrives, he finds himself stepping into what he was born to do.

Verse 26,

David asked the soldiers standing nearby, “What will a man get for killing this Philistine and ending his defiance of Israel? Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?” And these men gave David the same reply. They said, “Yes, that is the reward for killing him.”

I mean think about it.

“God will only trust you to the level you’re faithful to.”

What if David hadn’t obeyed his father?

What if he had said, “You know what old man? I’m going to be the king of Israel. I don’t need to listen to you.”

If David had done that, he would have never been at the right place at the right time to step into what he was born to do.

May we be a people who are obedient to what God has called us to in the here and now.

Be encouraged.