1 Samuel 17:10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.

This is Goliath calling out David. I hate being challenged. It brings out the warrior in me. With me it isn’t physical but intellect. I know the truth, I depend on the truth, the truth is my sword. My first instinct is to do battle. This has to change.

The example set forth in this story is not the armor, the weapons, or even the victory, but rather the attitude. When challenged I would come out as a Goliath, all proud, defiant, boisterous, well-armed and an imposing figure. Who could stand against me?

I never gave thought to the person in front of me. It never occurred to me that they might think that they were right and that they did not come to do battle. All they came for was to share an opinion, not do battle.

Now if I had received them as David, without armor, without weapons of mass destruction, in the humility of knowing that God is my shield and not my intellect, then I stand a better chance of winning a brother than wounding him, perhaps even destroying him.

At the root of all this is conflict of conscience. We all want to be right, but being right is not the same thing as the desire to be right.

Psalm 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

2 Samuel 12:1 And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.

This begins a story about sin.

2 Samuel 12:7a And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.

David did not recognize that Nathan was talking about him until Nathan revealed it to him. Such is the dilemma of the use of the Word to administer correction in our own lives. We see the sin but fail to recognize ourselves in the telling.

John 8:9a And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience,

Do you have a clean conscience? I know in my heart that I am capable of sin and that the conscience is but a tool to lead us to repentance. I would much rather search my conscience and discover there is no sin, than to say there is no sin and push the Holy Spirit to the next level of conviction.

Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Chastening is a sign of sonship, I am His son. Scourging is applied to sons who do not own up to what they have done. It has always gone easier on me to admit what I have done, than to make Him present the evidence against me.

What God has built in us, to bring us into a closer relationship with Him needs to be used to the fullest to get the most out of it. If I can be honest with myself, it makes it all that much easier to be honest with God.