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Taxes, Trusting, & Track Records
Jon BurgessThen Jesse said to David his son, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and these ten loaves and run to the camp to your brothers. 1 Samuel 17:17
David’s Dad saw him as a delivery boy and a messenger boy. His oldest brother Eliab accused him of irresponsibility for leaving the sheep behind and insolence for coming just to be a Looky-Lu regarding the battle. King Saul told David he couldn’t fight because he was too young and inexperienced. Goliath disdained David the moment he saw him and cursed him saying he was nothing more then a twig. Everyone in his life missed who David was. Everyone that is but Samuel who was told not to look as man looks. Man looks on the outward appearance and God looks at the heart and sees what everyone else misses. God saw David the Deliverer and Samuel anointed him as such. How was David able to keep himself from being falsely defined by all around him? He knew whose he was and that told him who he was. Notice that he tells King Saul its the Lord who delivered the lion and the bear into his hands? Notice that David sees this as not just an army, but armies of the Living God. He tells his older brother and Goliath what they clearly could not see themselves. He had such a strong identity in God that he wasn’t standing in the shadow of Goliath alone but in the very presence of “the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel” whom this giant had taunted. David knew whose he was and therefore whose battle this was: “for the battle is the Lords and He will give you into our hands.”
It’s Tax Day and many of us woke up in the shadow of the giant threatening to crush us with late fees, playing on our fears, and darkening our futures. It was last year at this time when Cyndi and I received the call from our tax preparer. It wasn’t the one you hope to get where they have discovered some hidden deductions increasing the size of your tax refund. It was the exact opposite kind of call. She was informing us that not only would we get nothing in return but would now need to pay much more then anticipated. We immediately found ourselves standing before our old foe. Initially we reacted very much the way the people of Israel did at the threats of Goliath: “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid”. All of my old fears swept in and were determined to define me again. Fears from childhood and our family struggle with never having enough. Fears from the recent past where we had just finished paying off some IRS debt. I thought I was done with this and now it call came rushing back. To make matters worse this call came on a Saturday and I was scheduled to preach a message on overcoming our fear of financial lack at New Hope Legacy the next morning. How could I stand in front of Gods people and talk about trusting God with our finances when I was shaking in my slippahs about that very thing? Then, after the panic, came the prayer. God began to walk me through His trust track record. From childhood through to adulthood and then with my own family and our move back to the islands He had faithfully provided for us every step of the way. I was like David who had seen His God deliver the lion and the bear into his hands and knew the giant would be no different. God was reminding me whose I was so that I would remember who I was. I am His! I am not defined by my lack, but by His fullness. My identity is not scarcity but generosity. So, I moved from delivery to deliverer in my thinking as I prayed with my wife Cyndi and then stood before Gods people on Sunday. It's a year later and we saw God take down this IRS giant that stood before us! I share this story so that “all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s…”!
Your trust track record is amazing Lord! I declare you Lord over April 15th and every other day that threatens to define me as anything other then completely Yours and completely covered! I’m standing with You and knocking down giants!
