It is hard not to be surprised by the personal nature of the dialog between David and God in this passage. The historian presents it as a normal conversation, as if David were talking with one of the generals or priests, except that David was talking to the Creator. Historians record many occurrences of that kind of dialog between God and David throughout his life, and we can learn ways to strengthen our relationship with God by examining these instances.

Now notice the nature of the dialog. There is a reverence in David's request, an acknowledgment that everything is in God's hands, and a trust that God's answer will be correct. This is not a dialog between equals, or even a dialog between student and teacher, but between servant and master. David knows his relationship to God, and David wants no more than to be a servant of God.

Read David's response carefully once he had won the victory. We can conclude that there was nothing divinely dramatic in this battle—no fire from heaven, no terrifying voices in the enemy camp, no angel of death striking them down. This was man against man, and David's army won. "By my hand," David said, "God burst out against my enemies."

There was a miracle that day, one that David understood even though none of the Philistine warriors would have seen it or perceived it. It was the miracle of God accomplishing a mighty work through the faithful followers in David's army. It was regular soldiers doing regular battle with extraordinary results because the results were from God. David was in close enough relationship with God to perceive the miracle in the midst of the mundane—the supernatural expressed in the natural. Too often, we look to see God's miracles in the unexplainable—a tumor that disappears, a patient waking from a coma, an almost automobile collision that appears to be have been avoided only by an invisible hand. David saw miracles in the explainable, and we should, too.

Finally, David gives all glory for the victory to God. David doesn't even claim that "we" won the victory, for this was not a "partnership" between David and God. There is no question in David's celebration that the victory was all because of God's overwhelming power washing over the enemy like a flood. David even renamed the place to celebrate how the Lord of the Breach won that victory.

These four steps in David's walk with God brought him back to the first step again. Because David embraced being no more than a servant of God, saw God's miracles in the ordinary, and gave God all the glory for success, David had a relationship with God that was as personal and intimate as a private conversation. There was nothing in David's life at this time that would separate him from God—no pride, no arrogance, no selfishness, no stubbornness—only the willing servant eager to do what God said.

That, too, is where we should start when we are committed to making a strong relationship with God. Pray that God would strengthen our "ordinary" discipline with God's extraordinary love so we can let go of our pride, or stubbornness, or whatever it is in us that slips between us and God. As we take on that role of servant, and God as master, God will help us to perceive the supernatural within the natural, and we will praise God and thank God for miracles we could not have noticed before. In that relationship, we will find ourselves more receptive to hearing God and more willing to pray, "not my will, but Yours be done".