Meet My Staff!

David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off. – 1 Samuel 17:39


When my daughter was a little girl she had a favorite doll she would carry around with her. His name was Steve. Steve went to bed with her every night. Sometimes he would grace our dinner table with his presence. He never talked much, at least not to the rest of us. But Steve and my daughter would have some long conversations sometimes!

Steve went with her to the doctor’s office. He was there when she got her shots. He went to church with her. Steve and Gabby were always together! In fact, once while she was sleeping my son and I organized a birthday party for Steve complete with cake and juice! She was elated to find out it was Steve’s birthday!

My daughter depended on Steve. He was comforting to her. He was familiar. He was tried and true. When all the other toys had to be put away, it was Steve who was allowed to sit on her bed.

As a boy David found himself in the midst of a trial when he needed something tried and true. Coming up against a 9 foot tall giant was no small feat for a shepherd boy. Yet, David volunteered! What made him feel the courage to put his life on the line? What he possessed was tried and true.

David tried the armor that King Saul offered him and told him “, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” Instead, what he took with him to fight Goliath was his staff, and three stones. The stones were weapons, and we understand why they were necessary. But what was the purpose of the staff?

The staff was a symbol of his faith in God, and he’d tried God, and proven Him to be true. A staff was often carved to show the great events in a shepherd’s life. David’s most likely had a carving of when he killed a bear and a lion with his bare hands (1 Samuel 17:36-37). Having fought both a bear and a lion and found God’s strength to be sufficient for him, he didn’t fear a Philistine who was mocking God’s own people!

What have you carved into your staff? Have you carved into it “God healed me from cancer”? Have you engraved it with a marriage that God glued back together? Have you marked it with the steps of a wandering child that came back to his upbringing? Have you recorded a financial downfall that God pulled you through?

I don’t know about you, but my staff is covered in marks! And when Satan rears his ugly head and comes at me with his tiny little water pistol ready to put out my fire, he’s gonna find me standing! And I’ll raise my staff up in the air, and shout, “Satan, meet my staff!” I’ve tried God and He has been proven faithful and full of mercy and grace! Praise God that I don’t fight my battles alone!