You have been chosen, but being chosen doesn’t quite feel like you imagined it would. You thought being God’s chosen girl would mean all open doors and overflowing abundance, but that’s not your current reality. When it doesn’t happen for us the way we thought it would, we begin to question if we are really chosen. Are we really the right one for the job? Are we really good enough? Are we really destined for more?

This picture we have in our head of how we think it’s supposed to be has stolen more potential than the attacks of our enemy ever has. You don’t just wake up one day and it’s all easier. You don’t just magically step into your purpose and then it all makes sense. It’s not just one thing that changes everything then you never struggle again.

I always assumed the introduction of David in scripture was the day he walked onto the battlegrounds where the giant Goliath was taunting the Israelites. I’ve read the story and thought David showed up that day as a nobody and overnight he became a somebody. So, I’ve always imagined that same story for myself. I’ll go from a nobody to a somebody, and it will all happen in that one key moment when I show up with courage and do something great. But, I’m wrong. That’s not how it happened for David, that’s not how it will happen for me, and my sister, that’s not how it will happen for you. David became a great King, but it didn’t begin with the slaying of the giant and it didn’t end there either.

If we actually back up one chapter and a few years, we find the introduction of David. He was believed to be somewhere between 8 and 13 years old when the Lord sends Samuel to a man named Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as the next King of Israel. Jesse presented 7 of his sons to Samuel for selection. One by one, the tallest, the strongest, the oldest, the seemingly best would go before Samuel, and each one, the Lord would say, “not this one.”

1 Samuel 16: 10-11, “After Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse, ‘The Lord hasn’t chosen any of these.’ Samuel asked him, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ ‘There is still the youngest,’ he answered, ‘but right now he’s tending the sheep.’ Samuel told Jesse, ‘Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here.’

David wasn’t even invited into the room. He wasn’t chosen to be at the table. His father considered him the least of all his sons, the one unworthy of an invitation. The one who was left out to work in the fields.

(Okay, I have to say it – does this remind anyone else of the story of Cinderella? She wasn’t even invited to try on the glass slipper to see if it fit. She was left out. Forgotten. Considered unimportant. But it was her! She was to be the princess!)

Honey, when God chooses you, no one else has to see what God sees. You don’t have to receive an invitation to the room or be given a seat at the table, or be asked to try on the glass slipper … God will hand deliver you where he wants you to be. You won’t be left out.

Listen to me right now … YOU ARE NOT LEFT OUT. God sees you. He knows you. The one thing he cares about is your heart. If your heart is devoted to him, there’s not another circumstance or detail that matters. He will get you where he wants you to be, solely because of your heart. If your heart is devoted to him, YOU ARE WHO HE WANTS.

Is that you? Is that your heart? Are you devoted to God? Do you want what he wants? Have you decided to go where he says?

Jesse, call for your youngest son out with the sheep. The one you didn’t invite to the room. The one you left out. Get him in here. So, in walks young David out of the field, smelling like sheep and Verse 12-13, “Then the Lord said, ‘Anoint him, for HE IS THE ONE.’ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David from that day forward.”

WOW – HOW COOL IS THAT?

We all want to be chosen. We all want to be special. But do we want to be forgotten?

Did you know feeling forgotten, feeling dismissed, and feeling like your big moment meant absolutely nothing is part of God’s calling on your life? No one prepared you for that feeling, now did they?

But follow the story because after David’s big moment of being chosen and anointed as the next King, he went right back to herding sheep. His circumstances didn’t change. His situation didn’t change. No one treated him differently. He didn’t even go shopping for a crown or a robe. He was still the little brother that everyone dismissed, still the one living with the sheep.

What happens next can be easily overlooked, but it’s important. The reigning King, Saul, was tormented by an evil spirit. He would find comfort if someone could play him music to ease his torture. So King Saul tells his servants to find him someone who could play music. One of his servants says, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play music.” So, Saul sends messengers to Jesse and says, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”

Yes, David, the one already anointed by God to be the next King and take Saul’s place, was still in the field with sheep. He was still in his daily grind wearing his same shepherd boy clothes.

Here I was thinking being anointed by God would make me important and change my wardrobe. Here I was thinking the anointing of God would change my circumstances and move me out of my current conditions. Wrong.

God’s anointing sits on you while you still show up in your daily grind.
While you still work for that paycheck.
While you still wear the same clothes.

You may not look anointed, but that’s just because of the picture you have in your head of what it’s supposed to look like. Here’s the real picture … David is hand selected by God to be the next King, he is anointed and filled with the power of his Spirit, then he goes back to the field with the sheep to work. And while he’s in that field doing what he’s always done, he’s called out for something completely unrelated. David, you can play music? Okay, you are needed.

So, David is taken to the palace to play music for King Saul and verse 21 says, “When David came to Saul and entered his service, Saul loved him very much, and David became his armor-bearer.”

This is all before the giant Goliath. In fact, it’s likely about 2 years before the day we all know about. When that day finally comes, do you know where David was? He was still herding sheep! He was going back and forth from playing music for Saul so he could sleep, to taking care of his father’s sheep at home.

Then you know the next part of the story … the part where little David hears the threats of this beastly man and all the Israelites are terrified. And David, already filled with the power of the God’s Spirit, says, “Hey, I’ll fight this giant and I will take him down!” And that’s precisely what he does.

He doesn’t use the weapons of war, because David wasn’t a warrior. He uses the tools of shepherding, because David was a shepherd boy. He puts 5 smooth stones in his shepherd pouch, and takes his shepherd sling shot in his hand. He nails the giant right in the forehead with a rock, and that giant falls!

This is what we know about David. But that’s not where David’s story began. He had already been chosen. Already been anointed. He just didn’t look like it.

Now, here’s the most confusing part of this whole story. After the battle between David and Goliath, King Saul says in 1 Samuel 17, verse 55, “Whose son is this youth? Find out!” David is brought before Saul, carrying Goliath’s head in his hand, and Saul says, “Whose son are you, young man?” “The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David answered.

Wait what … David had been playing music for Saul so he could sleep. He had been serving him in his palace. Yet the Saul had never taken notice of who David really was. And it would be 15 more years until David actually becomes King. More waiting. More serving. More battling.

Let me tell you something, people are going to take you for granted. You’re going to work your butt off, and no one will notice. You’re going to show up faithfully and it will feel like it’s all for nothing because you will still be a nobody. But girl, you keep showing up! You keep taking care of those sheep. You keep playing that music. You keep stepping up with courage. Don’t let what a single person says about you hold you back.

Why? Because you’ve been chosen by God for a purpose. You’ve been anointed to do something with your life. And remember, it’s all because God sees your HEART. When your heart is devoted to him, you are qualified. When you are qualified, then God himself equips you. He equips you with the unmatched power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why you’ll be able to slay giants. That’s why you will fight and win. That’s why you will rise up victorious.

So, you feel overlooked. You feel unappreciated. You feel forgotten. You feel less than. You feel left out. NONE OF THAT CHANGES GOD’S ANOINTING AND APPOINTING!

Go ahead and go back to your field and keep working because while you do, God will put you in the right place at the right time for greater things. But if you don’t show up for the lesser things, you will miss your opportunity at greater things.

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