Two weekends ago, my fellow AIM staffers and I came together for our annual staff conference.  Several times during the weekend, we spent extended times of prayer and worship together.  Two prayerful moments stick out for me personally. 

One occurred when the older AIM staff members were praying over those of us who are younger in confirmation of our spiritual gifts.  In the midst of other things, one thing that a sister in the Lord prayed over me had to do with
TRUTH,
walking in truth, standing in truth, defending truth.  She coupled this with boldness, wisdom and insight.  As Christians, I believe we must all stand for and defend God's truth.  However, Angel's prayer made it
personal for me.

Interestingly, I later remembered a picture one of my FYM staff had printed and given to while we served in England.  It's from a series of pictures depicting the armor of God.  This one had to do with the belt of truth:

The other moment that sticks out in my memory happened as those who are older ("elders" if you will) were again praying over those of us who are younger, this time in confirmation of our calling.  As some of them prayed over me, one of them remembered the Bible story about a man named Shammah, one of David's mighty men.

Since then, I have been exploring the story and seeing what I can learn from it.

You can find the story in 2 Samuel 23:11-12.  Here's what happens....

The Philistines attack the Israelites, and the Israelites freak out and run away.  Well, all except Shammah run away.  Maybe Shammah didn't notice that everyone else had decided to retreat, or maybe He had an awesome faith in God.  Whatever his reason, Shammah stayed to fight.  He continued single-handedly fighting the Philistines that attacked that field until no more Philistines came.  Wow.

In reading the passage, I noticed three things about what Shammah did:

He STOOD

He DEFENDED

He STRUCK

No doubt, all of these things contibuted to the Philistine's defeat. 

However, a curious, four word phrase stands out:

GOD BROUGHT THE VICTORY!

What a lesson for us to learn.  Many times in life we fight spiritual battles.  Each time, we must stand in Christ.  Often we must defend our ground, and sometimes we must take the offensive and strike.  But, no matter our role,

GOD

IS THE ONE WHO BRINGS OUR VICTORY!