Facing our GIANTS in today’s world…

David Verses Goliath

Have you ever felt like this…

Like everything that can go wrong has, 

and that you’re facing your own giants?

 

For many people today I think that is an accurate description of the way they feel regarding our country and the very serious problems we are facing today.

For some, I’m afraid, it’s like our nation just stepped from the frying pan into the fire, with the results of this past election; but is that the case? Yes and no, but then there is God!

For others they are facing other problems and difficulties in their lives, and it is taking everything they have to just keep their nose above water!

For some it may even seem hopeless… but then there is God!

We, who are Believers, can look to our Bibles and see how this patterned has been well established in God’s Word, how that many times God’s people were outnumbered and were facing literal giants, just as happened with this little teenager, this shepherd boy named David!

Part of our training in becoming Christian soldiers is to learn how to face our fears.

Fear is something we ALL experience in life, and sometimes it’s a good thing.

If you’re fooling around with high voltage, fear is a good thing, because it will cause you to exercise caution; and it will most likely keep you alive.

However if the fear you are experiencing is causing you to feel hopelessly outnumbered and out matched, abandoned by God, and defeated; and if you have this temptation to run away, then the Bible says that sort of fear comes from a spirit.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

2 Timothy 1:7

To borrow a line from an old John Wayne war movie, “All wars are filled with brave men, who are scared and would rather be somewhere else;” meaning it’s not the fear that’s the problem, but rather it’s our reaction to fear that will defeat us, if that reaction is causing us to run away and not face our fears.

I am sure that we all have fears that we are facing today, of one kind or another; our giants if you will.

Maybe we’re afraid of losing our home; or our job; maybe you are an employer and you are having to lay off your workers; or maybe you have a loved one who is sick, and possibly dying; it could be any number of things like this that are very real.

What do we do in times like this?

Well the same sorts of problems also existed in biblical times too, among our forefathers.and the saints of old; In fact our problems that we are facing today are no less traumatic to us, than there’s were to them. 

We really need to read our Bibles with that in mind, and put flesh and blood on these characters we are reading about; and not put them on a pedestal; because they were just like us!

I am sure that little David was also afraid, just as we all would be if we had been standing in his shoes!

It would have been so easy for him to ignore it all and look the other way. That’s what everyone, including his brother wanted him to do. That would have been the natural thing to do; but David had already learned not to flee from his fears, after having seen God deliver him from both a lion and from a bear.

David just faced his fears and went ahead anyway, trusting that God would see him through; and so it is with us today… we also have to learn to trust in God!

The way we do that is we have to go through our own minefields in life, our own battle zones, where we are forced to face your own giants, and see the power of God deliver us where we are!

Thank God for people in the Bible like Peter!

Peter gives me lots of hope, because even though it seems like he was always putting his foot in his mouth, and saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time; nevertheless, God could still use him, and He did use him.

Peter didn’t have it all together either, no more than you or I have it all together in our life.

He wasn’t perfect, he didn’t have to be. In fact his worst day was probably the day he denied our Lord three times, after having bragged a few days before about always having Jesus’ back!

What was the first thing that Jesus said to Mary, after His Resurrection, on that Sunday morning? He said: “Go tell My disciples and PETER!”

Through it ALL, just like us, Peter also had to LEARN to trust in Jesus; he had to learned to put his faith in God, after having gone through so many trials and tribulations in his life; just like we do.

He had to learn how to commit it ALL to Jesus!

Well, how does that happen?

Well for that answer we have to look to our Operations Manual for Life (the Bible).

To start with, it happens by our being put in the furnace of life, and our being put through the University of the Holy Spirit, which I am quite sure that many of you who are reading this now are enrolled in, as am I.  Isn’t it fun? 🙂

In 1 Corinthians 10:11 we are told that these things, that are written in the Bible, where written for our example; that we might gain knowledge, wisdom, and direction for our own lives, as we see how God has throughout history interacted in the lives of men.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and even though the times may have changed, and even though we are living in this modern age; nevertheless, as members of the human race, our problems are not that different, as we are today faced with the same sorts of problems as were the saints of old… trying to survive and trying to support our families!

The opposition, our mortal enemy, who is Satan (aka the Devil), he is operating the same way as well; and is using the same tactics and strategy that he used against our forefathers, the saints of old.

It may be a different time, but it’s the same Devil… but of course you wouldn’t know that unless you are reading your Bible!

Have you considered how many times God has even led his people into problems and storms?

Take Abraham for instance; God called him to take Sarah and his servants and to go to a new land, the “Promise Land;” the only problem was God didn’t tell him where it was, it was totally a walk of faith; and then when he finally got there he was right in the middle of a famine.

Take Gideon, who when hiding in the winepress area from the Philistines, God’s angle spoke to him and called him to battle, saying “Gideon, thy mighty man of valor!”

To which Gideon said: “Who me?” God does have a sense of humor, doesn’t he?

I certainly relate to Gideon, how about you?

Even though Gideon and his men were sorely outnumbered, God tell Gideon that he has too many men on his side; and so then God starts whittling down Gideon’s fighting force until there were only 300 men, against a force many many times larger… but those are exactly the odds that God likes!

That way He gets the glory!

In fact God specializes in making impossible situations possible; and making ways in the wilderness, for His kids, where there seems to be no way… and they are called Miracles!

What about in the New Testament, where Jesus sent His disciples into the storm, only to come out to them walking on the water, scaring the bejeebers out of them, because they’re thinking that He’s a ghost?

Then it was our old friend Peter who says, “Lord if it truly be you, then have me come to you walking on the water!”

Peter was learning how to trust His Lord, while in the middle of the storm, and so must we!

Here’s the rhyme and reason for all of this, as God told Moses:

Deuteronomy 8:2-5

² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

Whatever it is you are facing today, however big your giants may be, please just know this, that your God is BIGGER; and just as it happen with David and with all the countless stories of other saints in the Bible, about how Israel constantly faced impossible odd, and their God was always well able to deliver them; and so He will deliver us as well, if we are faithful to follow and obey Him.

At one time Jesus told Peter that Satan had asked to have him to sift him as wheat; and Jesus didn’t say that He would keep Peter from that trial; but rather He said, “Peter, I will pray for you that your faith fails not,” and so Jesus is praying for us today!

.Apparently somethings can only be learned by going through the fire… and Jesus today is certainly baptizing His church in fire!  Selah

Shalom,

Skip 

“In God I trust”