So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. — 1 Samuel 17:50
The giants in our lives can feel intensely final. When you are standing in the valley and the giant is large and the stones in your hand feel impossibly small, it is easy to believe that this moment is the defining one. That if things do not go the right way here, the story is over. That the giant in front of you is the period at the end of everything you hoped for.
But every giant we face leads us to a new moment. These are moments that define our future in ways we could not have anticipated from the other side of the valley. They open our eyes to things we would never have seen had we not been forced to face what was standing in our way. The giant that felt like the end turns out to be the doorway. And what is on the other side of it is something the valley was preparing us to receive.
David’s story did not end in the valley of Elah. The shepherd boy who ran toward a giant that an entire army refused to engage went on to become one of the greatest kings in the history of Israel. Goliath was not the destination. He was the threshold. The giant that stood between David and his future was not the end of his story: it was the moment that revealed who David actually was and what God had been preparing him for all along.
Over the course of this series we have walked through that story together. We named the giant rather than living in the vague dread of something unnamed. We acknowledged the paralysis that giants produce and the cost of standing still. We learned how the private battles of the field prepare us for the public giants of the valley. We laid down the borrowed armor that was never fitted for the way we move. We stopped at the brook and chose our stones with intention. We declared the name of the LORD before we took a single step. And we ran.
That journey, from the first moment the giant appeared to the moment the stone landed, is the journey every believer takes when they finally decide that the valley is not where they intend to stay.
And here is what the story of David teaches us about what comes after. The giant falls. And on the other side of its fall is a view you could not have had from where you were standing. A future that required the facing of this particular giant to become accessible. A version of your story that only exists because you did not stay in the place of paralysis, did not wait for someone else to go first, did not let the size of what was in front of you become the measure of what was possible.
Your giant is intense. We are not minimizing that. But it is not the final word over your life. It is not the period at the end of your story. It is a chapter. A defining one, perhaps. A shaping one, certainly. But a chapter, not the conclusion.
David went on from Goliath. And so will you. Name your giant. Choose your stones. Speak the name of the LORD over what is standing in front of you. And run toward it with everything you have.
The valley is not the end. It is where your story gets interesting.
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About Another Well Ministries
Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
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