Giants

July 1, 2011

"There's no reason for your entire army to be involved in this. Just send a fighter, and I'll take him on. I am the champion. I am the greatest."  We often miss the fact that Goliath didn't issue this challenge one time and then leave. No. His challenge went on for forty days.  And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening. (I Samuel17:16). Every morning and every evening for well over a month, he strutted out there, flaunting his size and his strength, daring someone to take him on.

How applicable to any "giant" we encounter! That's the way it is with the giants of fear and worry. They don't come just once - they come morning and evening, day after day, relentlessly trying to intimidate us (am I the only one that experiences this?). They come in the form of a person, a pressure, a sickness, a financial crisis or a worry. Some of you may have a fear(s) that hammers on your heart every morning and every night, day in and day out, yelling across the ravine in your own personal valley. Few things are more persistent and intimidating than our fears and our worries . . . especially when we feel we have to face them in our own strength.

I noticed something that occurred prior to a boy facing a giant, when the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). Literally, God said, "for man looks at the face, but the Lord looks at the heart."

We, being human, are often subject to that same problem. We are impressed with, or not impressed with, individuals because we judge on the basis of surface appearance. We look at the externals, and we form opinions that are usually nowhere in the ball park.

If God's statement ever applied, it applied in this historic incident. Goliath had all the right stuff that would normally impress and intimidate. In this instance, however, David had been given the ability to see as God always sees, and he was neither impressed nor intimidated. Because no matter how big the giant might be, God is greater. And no matter how powerful he might be, God is all-powerful.

Every day see your giants as God sees them. DEFEATED!. Now go conquer!

That’s my side, what’s yours?

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