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Saturday, May 5, 2012

SLAYING THE GIANTS IN YOUR LIFE - PART 1



Due to the length of this message, it will be written in parts.  Each part will be featured for four days.  The purpose it twofold.  One is to practice patience, the other to soak in every step.

Picture this.  He was 9 feet tall and 400 pounds.  He got up at the crack of dawn and goes to the top of the hill overlooking your city every day and verbally bullies you, breaking your spirits down because you are one of the survivors our of 30,000 already annihilated by him and ones like him.  His armor weighs a ton.  The head alone of his spear weighed 16 lbs., not including the pole.  His name was Goliath.

He was a teenager, probably no more than 95 lbs., 4’11”.  He had 4 rocks and a slingshot in his pocket.  Not very long ago, 30,000 of his people were killed by the giant Philistine and his people.  His name was David. 

Imagine this kid asking King Saul to give him permission to kill Goliath.  Even the king did not want to go up against him.  But David had God’s strength.  He knew that someone needs to do the job of shutting down the giant.  So with his humble ammo in his pocket, runs up towards the battle line to meet Goliath.  Then David flung a stone that sank in the forehead of the Philistine who fell face down to the ground.  David then walked over to the fallen corpse of the giant, removed the giant’s sword and decapitates him with his own sword.

Whether you are sitting there and reading this or not, we all have giants in our lives.  No, not actual giants or people who give you a hard time, but giants like fear, addiction, etc.

How can you become that kind of a courageous person?  How can you have that lion’s heart of valor well up inside of you instead of becoming a shrinking violet when you come up against a giant in your life? All of us have big dark things that blot out the sun in our day.  Our giants usually have names.  Maybe a financial or career giant, an addiction, an affliction,  whatever the giant may be, we come to a decision, and when you are in that moment, you ask yourself, will I stand or will I fall?  Will I advance or will I retreat?  I believe that in the crucible of decisions, is where we really see who we are and even more so, what we’re becoming.

Now some of you have faced your giants for a long time, and it taunts you and maybe it is time for you to face that giant and it is time for you to do something about it… enough is enough!  If giants are faced, they can be defeated. 

The first characteristic of a giant slayer is that they live with the perspective of preparation. 

We must be faithful in the lonely places and in the little things when it seems like nobody else is watching.  David had fire in his eyes for God when he prepared to fight Goliath, and the king knew that it was their only chance.  If he lost, it was over!  But something was so animated and intense in David’s eyes when he stood before the king that he even had Saul believing in him.  Saul who was the chosen one to become king of Israel because he was the tallest man, the giant of Israel, who was looking down at this little teenager who convinced him to allow him to be the man for the job.

Have you been allowing God to prepare you and to teach you the things he wants to teach you so you will be prepared to whip the snot out of your giant when you’re ready to go do it?  In the quiet times when it seems like nobody else is looking, have you been preparing yourself so that when you face the giants that you’re facing right now you look at it square in the eyes and say, "I’m gonna do to you what was done to the last lion and the last bear when no one else saw what I was doing, I took them on because what I did was not in my own strength, but in God’s strength through me."  I believe God wants you to be ready for any giant that comes your way but for you to be ready you’ve got to be willing to be one of his students. You’ve got to learn the lessons in the quiet place, we’ve got to be faithful in the little tasks, responding to the little challenges along the way that don’t seem to be any big deals but maybe reading a daily devotional in your bible, that’s getting prepared.  Christians don’t even do that.

(continued tomorrow)

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