5 Smooth Stones

Yesterday in my small group community at my church we discussed having faith that Christ has equipped us to fulfill His will by looking at the account of David and Goliath in I Sam 17. One of the questions I asked the group was why did David take 5 stones when only 1 was needed? Didn’t he have faith? Didn’t he believe God could smite Goliath? Didn’t he taunt Goliath saying that God would deliver him into his hands? What makes the question even more puzzling is that when we think of David we think of him as “A man after God’s own heart”. So why 5 stones? Doesn’t that show weakness? Doesn’t that show a lack of faith? Doesn’t that show that David isn’t this “man after God’s own heart”? Then I had to ask the question, what does it mean being after God’s own heart? Does it mean faith? Does it mean service? Does it mean smiling and giving grace when that jerk jumps in front of you in the 10 items or less express lane and has 400 items? What I’ve noticed is if the person’s heart is honest with God, I mean transparently honest with Him, God is pleased. After David had eyes for Bathseba, when Thomas said he just wouldn’t believe, when Martha pointed her bony finger at Jesus and said “If you had only been here my brother wouldn’t have died”, when Peter denied Him to the servants, when the rich young ruler walked away from Him sad, Christ’s response is always of love. Compare that to Ananias and Sapphira when they, in all appearances, were being “Holy” and “giving fully of themselves” but secretly kept back some of the profits they pledged to Christ, God hit the smite button. What God wants is our honesty. When asked how ya doin’ the answer is not always good, yet God wants us to be willing to have faith in Him that He will still love us even if we are disappointed, disagree, or discouraged by what He does and wants to the point we are willing to tell Him we are ticked off, grieved, or discouraged. Look at the Psalms, didn’t David do that? Didn’t he tell God his joys, sorrows, trials and successes? Maybe the next time we pick up 5 smooth stones we will remember that and be comforted that He is still pleased.