Original in Spanish

One of the many appealing stories in the Bible is the one concerning David and Goliath. This story shows us the success we can obtain when we look to God as the giver and preserver of all good. When the giant Goliath, with all his appearance of power and grandeur, confronted the young David, David, with firm resolution and inviolable confidence in God, answered without fear, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts." And he added, "And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's."

With this thought of absolute faith in the triumph of good, David "ran toward the army to meet the Philistine." He didn't fear, he didn't retreat irresolute, but rather very much to the contrary, he valiantly confronted his enemy and overcame him.

We can see in this story important lessons in trust in God, spiritual reasoning, and humility. But it may be important to ask, What is this Goliath?

For most of us, most of the time, "Goliath" won't be a physical giant ready to fight us with a sword and a shield. Our Goliaths tend to take different forms—such as envy, jealousy, resentment, impatience, infidelity, bad temper, criticism, curiosity about evil, apathy, sensualism, or any other aspect of materialism. But there is no reason to fear anything that would challenge us physically or mentally. If we recognize that all power belongs to the one divine Mind, God, good, who is continuously guiding all His creation, bestowing wisdom, discernment, strength, we understand that evil must be an impostor. If we also perceive that God is everywhere, is infinite, we see that nothing but God has authority because nothing contrary to God, Spirit, truly can exist.

His universe is totally good, created by Him. It is where His children exist in harmony, for the purpose of glorifying Him. Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health, "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation." This says not only that creation is completely spiritual but also that God maintains a permanently harmonious relationship with it.

So our Goliaths are always, at base, nothing more than a false concept of creation or spiritual reality—a false sense of ourselves or our neighbor, or perhaps of some situation. But we can do as David did.

For one thing, David didn't turn back in the face of Goliath's boastfulness. No matter how aggressive evil seems to be, we can know that because Truth, God, is all-powerful, our Goliath will be defeated—all evil traits, even all sickness, can be, and sooner or later will be, revealed as unreal and reduced to the nothingness they truly are. So, like David, we can have calm and firm trust in God, conscious of the ever-presence of spiritual reality and ready to confront illness and wrong to prove their powerlessness.

Also, just as David didn't need powerful human weapons or endless hours of struggle in order to conquer Goliath, neither do we have to think that we need extensive and compulsory hours of prayer in order to conquer whatever seems to have power over us at the moment.

David didn't have to fight a prolonged battle. His clear spiritual thought enabled him to confront this challenge and triumph quickly and decisively. The single stone that he threw made the giant fall. We also can trust in the presence of God right now. The clarity of inspired thought is sufficient to obtain the victory and to prove that there truly is nothing to fear.

Our study and spiritual dedication and prayer prepare us for any hour of trial, because each trial is really an opportunity for progress. Our being is one with God, and nothing can separate us from the radiation of divine Love, which tenderly surrounds us, bestowing dominion and joy.

We can also observe in the story of David that he employed in his defense right reasoning. He reasoned that if God's power had earlier freed him from the lion and the bear, this power would also free him from the giant Philistine. And this sound conclusion helped David to confront Goliath with confidence.

Going forward in time, we see that Christ Jesus proved the most consistent and deepest thinker the world will ever know. He reasoned rightly all the time. He turned constantly to divine intelligence, reasoning always from the one cause, God. This allowed him to distinguish truth from error, the true from the false. One of many examples of the right reasoning he employed was when a group of religious teachers accused him of being in league with Beelzebub, or the devil. This, they said, was how Jesus cast out demons or evils and healed the sick. But Jesus, starting from the standpoint of God's allness, explained: "If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." His whole response silenced the voice of material reason, and on this basis he healed illness and sin.

Centuries later, the discovery of the Science of divine healing by Mrs. Eddy brought again the practical, healing effects of spiritual reasoning and understanding. The way to reason correctly and spiritually, which provides us valuable help in solving problems and daily demonstrating the divine power, Mrs. Eddy explains in these words: "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence."

A third valuable lesson from the experience of David is humility. In humility David accepted the fact that all is the work of God and that we always owe the victory to Him, from whom proceeds all correct action. These lessons from the Bible story of David relate to an experience that I had.

I was carrying out household tasks when I felt a severe pain on one side of my neck. It was so intense that I stopped my work and leaned against the wall so that I wouldn't fall down. This condition had presented itself earlier when I was still unacquainted with Christian Science, and doctors had diagnosed it as torticollis. My neck was immobile for days at one point.

Now the situation was different. I had a more powerful weapon to depend on than any material aids, and I knew that it was already at my disposal. So I used it!

I trusted that God was with me right at that moment. I reasoned that the earlier proofs of His care that I'd had meant that I also had His care now. And in humility I accepted the fact that I wasn't doing anything by myself. God, divine Mind, had done all, perfectly, harmoniously, everlastingly. Thus it was not a question of "making" something happen. Immediately my thought lifted, and this uplift was the stone that knocked down the "enemy." The result was that at that moment I stood up completely healed and free from pain, and began to do my customary work. There was never again such a problem with my neck.

David succeeded in making the giant fall, never to rise. The same attitude can be ours when we confront some Goliath of our own. To trust that God is present; to reason rightly, with God as the only reality; humbly to recognize Him as the only source of action—these assure success. So, courage; the victory is yours.