Responding To The Giants - Part 1

When I think about David and Goliath, I'm usually thinking about David's faith, the battle, the takedown and the ulitmate victory.  I love the way the story plays out and it never fails to inspire me to live and dream largely.  That said, I've been thinking about something very different lately.  I'm convinced that while we don't have literal 10 foot giants challenging us to fight on a daily basis, we all face giants in our lives.  They appear as problems, challenges, threats and obstacles in our lives.  Sometimes they are financial, physical, emotional or psychological.  Like Goliath, they roar and bellow, daring us to engage them in a life and death struggle.  

There are 4 different kinds of people in the story of David and Goliath.  Each one responded very differently.  Consider the army  with me.  David refers to them as the Armies of God.  These were people with a shared heritage, history and tradition.  God was central to their culture and society but when faced with a threat, they retreated to their tents in fear.  For 40 days the same scene repeated itself.  They ran and hid in their tents when Goliath challenged them.  You have to wonder why....

I believe that their fear was based on a lack of the knowledge of God.  It's not that they were ignorant of their history as much as that they were unaffected by it.  God was a part of their past but absent in their present.  In the midst of their crisis, they had no confidence in the only One who could save them and were left trusting in their own resources and abilities.  It's no wonder that they ran....

I confess that there are times that I run from the giants.  Sometimes they intimidate me tremendously.  It's in those times that I remind myself that God needs to be in my present as much as He has been in my past.  When I take time to remember, when I take time to remind myself, when I take time to feed my spirit with His Word, my faith is rekindled and I am able to face the giants without fear.  So can you!