The numbers don’t lie, but people do.

The numbers don’t lie, but you may be looking at the wrong numbers.

You may not be looking at all the numbers.

And, when God is in the numbers, then everything changes, because you just can’t compare a number with the infinite.

That’s why a young guy named Samuel could replace the established priestly line of Eli.

It’s why an outnumbered Israel could defeat a highly numbered Amorite army.

It’s why a young boy with a sling shot could slay a giant.

Why?  Because little is much if God is in it.

So, if you’re feeling small, and you’re just at the start of something, don’t fear.  You could be like teenage David.  You may still be tending sheep.  You may still be like Hannah, and you’re into middle age without a child, and you want to know why.  God can birth in you a new thing.  You may be at the start of a new project, and you may feel like David with a sling shot in your hand, facing a giant, but you know what?  If God is on your side, you can slay that giant.  You can go out and come in in the sight of all Israel.  You can triumph if God is on your side.

The question is, are you on his?

If so, you may have some troubles.  David did.  He had a man trying to kill him.  Not just any man.  The king.  The man who celebrated his victory was now seeking his life.  The man who rewarded David for killing with a sling shot…is now trying to kill David with a spear.

Read I Samuel 18 and 19, and you’ll at least 3 times that King Saul tried to kill David by pinning him against the wall…while he was paying music!  I mean can, you imagine.  You’ve risked your life, and now you’re the king’s personal musician.  You’re playing your heart out.  The tones of the strings coming together in a beautiful minor chord, and the rhythm is swelling, and you look up…and there’s the king with a spear….pointed at you.  You jump out of the way just in time, and the spear goes deep into the wall.  The king just tried to kill you!

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was in that situation, I might start counting my numbers.  I might see that the military was behind me.  I might see that Saul’s son Jonathan and his daughter Michal were on my side.  I might start doing my calculations, and arrive at a number: 1.  That’s the number of stones I’d have to put in my pouch and sling them into Saul’s head.  He wouldn’t even see it coming.  I’d take him down just like I took Goliath.  I mean, by the numbers, he isn’t even as big, and I’m stronger than ever.

But..that’s not what David did.  He didn’t count the numbers like that.  He didn’t paint by the numbers, he painted his life with the brush strokes of faith.   This was a faith that said, I will follow God if it means kill a giant or protecting a crazy, murderous, out of control king.

He said, I’ll go where you send me even if it means into target practice for the mad king!  But, as you know, that’s not what happened.  Saul may have thought David was in his cross-hairs, but he was really in the bulls-eye of God’s favor and grace.  He was stepping out in faith, and that’s where God blesses.  That’s where God provides, and that’s where the numbers just don’t add up.

So, if your math is ever called into question, remember something.  There’s one equation you can always be sure of.

God >

God is greater!