May 30

Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword and pulled it from its sheath and killed him; and he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. — 1 Sam 17:50-51 BSB

If David had not cut off Goliath’s head, the giant would have eventually gotten back up and walked away, for he was only stunned, not killed, by the stone. David made sure of his victory!

Many of our efforts to defeat sin in our lives are like this. We merely “stun” our sins, thinking we’ve done well, only to find that the same sins rise again later, as strong as ever. We face the same battles over and over because we don’t deal with the sin thoroughly. We fight half-heartedly, and so the struggle continues throughout life.

Most of us have had this experience with our sinful desires and weaknesses. We believe we’ve conquered them, only to find them active again shortly after.

We need to learn from David to finish our victories by “cutting off the head” of every giant we bring down!

There is no other way to truly kill sin. The life is in the head, and if we don’t cut off the head, the sin will return soon, perhaps with only a scar to show where we struck before.

The only way to achieve real victory over our vices is to decapitate them! Wounds and bruises won’t suffice. We must take strong and decisive action, in the name of the Lord. Half-hearted measures will not bring lasting victory.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5)

“Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the Lord.” (1 Samuel 15:33) Like Samuel, we must “hew our Agags to pieces”!