From Challenge to Calling: Faith Refined in God’s Presence Amid Giants

From Challenge to Calling:

Faith Refined in God’s Presence Amid Giants

We all know the story. The Philistine champion stands in the Valley of Elah, a mountain of muscle and malice, roaring his challenge day after day. The armies of Israel tremble. Even their king, taller than the rest, remains frozen in fear. Then, almost unexpectedly, a shepherd boy appears with a sling and five smooth stones (1 Sam. 17).

The story of David and Goliath is often told as the ultimate underdog victory. We celebrate its drama and defiance. We recount it in Sunday school classrooms and quote it when facing intimidating moments in life. Yet, in our familiarity with the narrative, we may have softened a hard and holy truth embedded within it. Unless there is the existence of Goliath, there can be no emergence of David.

Before that defining day, David was already anointed. The oil of kingship had been poured upon his head by Samuel, and the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him mightily (1 Sam. 16:13). Yet his outward life remained unchanged. He returned to the fields, tending sheep and running errands for his father. His anointing was real, but it was hidden. His calling was genuine, but it lacked a stage.

There was no visible path from pasture to palace. No moment that could translate private faith into public destiny. Then entered Goliath.

 Goliath was not merely an enemy of Israel. He was a divine necessity within God’s redemptive plan. He was the impossible challenge that created the platform for David’s faith to be revealed. Every hidden season of preparation, every lonely night guarding sheep from lions and bears, every quiet conversation with God in the fields had shaped David’s confidence in the Lord (1 Sam. 17:34–37). Yet that confidence required a context. Goliath became that context.

The giant did not simply oppose Israel. He occasioned Israel’s deliverer.

This pattern runs deep throughout Scripture. Pharaoh’s oppression called forth Moses’ leadership. The chaos of the Judges prepared the longing for a king. Exile refined a remnant. And in the fullness of time, the darkness of Roman occupation and religious hypocrisy prepared the world for the light of Christ (Gal. 4:4). God consistently brings redemption out of resistance.

The same principle applies in our lives. God often uses what threatens to undo us to define us. The very struggle that feels unbearable may be the instrument through which God reveals who He has been shaping us to become. Our Goliath may not wear armor or carry a spear, but it looms just as large. It may appear as illness, financial collapse, relational breakdown, delayed promises, or inner battles that feel too heavy to name.

These giants are not interruptions to God’s plan. In His sovereign wisdom, they are often part of it (Rom. 8:28).