Facing Our Giants

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“Facing Our Giants”

1 Samuel 17:48

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

 

Last week, we discussed the story of David and Goliath in our small group session.  I’ve read this story so many times through my life and have heard it in church through many sermons.  However, something always seems to hit you differently at some point in time about a passage you’ve read so many times in the past.

 

This verse really stood out to me in our study time together and I mentioned how the verse states David had no hesitation in running up to the battle line to meet Goliath.  This is a confident person who knew that God was with him and would help him conquer Goliath.  David had experience of trusting in God in the past and knew God would be with him as he fought Goliath.  He was confident and did what he needed to do.  Saul tried to put armor on him to help, but David didn’t need that.  All he needed was a stone and his sling.  Wow!

 

As I’ve thought more about this passage this week, I think about how all of us face giants in our lives that scare us to the point where we can’t face them.  Stress and anxiety hits us and we cannot even fathom facing our giants.  The enemy has as way of making us feel like the giants are way bigger than they are.  Don’t get me wrong, some giants are terrifying, but God is BIGGER than any giant we face.  That doesn’t mean the giant will just disappear because we have God on our side.  However, it DOES mean that God will give us strength, courage and endurance as we face the giants.

 

Often we get upset when God won’t remove a giant from our lives.  We have to remember that His ways are not our ways.  Although we cannot often understand what God is doing, we know that He is working and that He’s worked through us and with us in the past.  We have to trust Him and face our giants.  It takes much prayer and faith. 

 

I find myself dealing with a lot of giants in my life and I get stressed out and anxious easily.  I need to fully focus on God and pray for wisdom, strength and endurance through it all.  We can all be like David and run to the battle line to face whatever is in front of us staring us right in the face.  We can conquer with God’s help.  Running away from our giants will never solve our issues. 

 

I want to encourage all of us today and every day moving forward, to bring fears to God regarding our giants and ask Him for the wisdom, strength, endurance and confidence to face the giants head on and watch God do amazing things.  

Conformed Or Transformed

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“Conformed Or Transformed?”

Romans 12:2 NIV

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

Recently I was watching a sermon by Louie Giglio on the power of a transformed mind and something he said really caught my attention.  He talked about how every moment of each day is claimed by either following God or following the world.  The thought really spoke to me and I thought about how often we live our lives conformed to the world instead of transformed for God. 

 

The past few months I have really struggled with thoughts in my mind.  The enemy has been working a lot on me getting me to think negative thoughts about myself.  Recently I finished Louie’s book “Don’t Give The Enemy A Seat At Your Table” and it was a life transforming book for me.  It really challenged my thoughts and how I need to take them captive each day instead of letting them take root and cause a downward spiral of a negative mindset. 

 

His sermon and book were a big reminder that my life needs to be completely transformed by God every moment of every day.  The NLT version reads, “Don’t copy the behaviors and customs of this world”.  So often we find ourselves following and copying what the world does.  And, there is absolutely no way in the world we can be conformed to the world and transformed to God at the same time. 

 

This reminds of Paul’s words as he spoke about the fight of the flesh each day.  He speaks about following the flesh and following the Spirit.  It goes back and forth.  We need to be renewed in our minds by God’s Word.  Every time a negative thought comes into our mind, we must IMMEDIATELY take it captive.  No “ifs”, “ands” or “buts”!  We are told to take it captive right away and not let it simmer in our minds and stew on it.  From there, it can become a fast downward spiral. 

 

I highly encourage you to read Louie’s book as it really challenged me to think of things I had never thought of before.  It’s a daily battle we face striving to live our lives transformed by God instead of confirmed to the world.  I challenge each of us to strive for taking captive every thought and not letting the enemy have a seat at our table.  The enemy will try to in many different ways and a lot of us have given him the seat for a long time.  I know I have.  We must be careful to not let negative thoughts slip in and take root. 

 

Take some time today, tomorrow and each day after thinking about whether you live your life more conformed to the world or transformed to God. 

Slap Of Reality

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“Slap Of Reality”

Proverbs 12:15 NIV

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

 

One of my favorite movies from many years ago is Disney’s The Kid.  Bruce Willis stars as a very successful image consultant (Russ) who has become very uptight and not dealt with his past childhood of tension with his father and getting bullied from kids at school.  His younger self appears to Russ and then Russ feels like he’s going crazy and seeing things.  He makes an appointment with a therapist and then walks in and has a very quick conversation.  He makes it very clear that he just needs 5 minutes to clear this up and get a strong pill prescribed to take care of the situation.  When the therapist says, “You need to deal with these issues”, Russ snaps back with, “Issue!  Issue!  Just one issue!” 

 

As funny as this scene is, I cannot help but think this is so often how we come to God with what we think is wrong in our lives.  We often want God to take care of something we think is wrong, but God wants to point out other areas that also need attention.  Often times I think we come to God with, “Only 1 issue, God!  I just need help with this one thing.”  All the while, we act foolish and hard headed to not allow God to show us more that we need to work on.

 

We often need a slap of reality from God to show us that just because we think we know what’s wrong and what needs fixed in our lives, God will often show us something else and we need to heed His words and guidance.  We so often are foolish to think we know what we need to work on and everything else is fine.  We need to let God work in our hearts to show us more and exactly what He wants us to see.

 

As we have entered this New Year, why don’t we become more open to what God wants to show us?  We all have issues we need to deal with in life.  Not everything is going to be a quick fix, much like Russ wanted in the movie.  We need to come to God and let Him show us the “issues(plural)” that we have in our lives that need attention. 

 

It’s better for us to have a slap of reality to face these issues and work through them with God’s help and not plug away with only what we think is wrong.  We need to ask God to make that clear to us and show us what we need to work on.  We need to ask Him to search our hearts and reveal whatever it is that is not right that we need to work on. 

 

Let’s not be foolish, but instead listen for wise advice. 

As Long As I'm Breathing, I've Got A Reason

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“As Long As I’m Breathing, I’ve Got A Reason”

Psalms 150:6 NIV

I will bless You with every breath of my life; I will lift up my hands in praise to Your name.

 

 

The past several months at our church, we have been playing the song “Praise” by Elevation Worship.  This has become a really fun song to play on our worship team.  The phrase that always sticks out in my mind is the line right before the chorus, “As long as I’m breathing, I’ve got a reason to praise the Lord”. 

 

As we’ve continued to play and sing this song for several Sundays, I’m reminded how easy it is for us to find every reason to complain about things in life.  And, before going any further, I’m going to admit that I am one of these people.  I don’t mean to be, but I have a tendency to be critical and complain about things.  I have been working very hard on trying to be more positive about things in life, but it has been a struggle for me. 

 

As I continue to think about these lyrics (Apparently God keeps bringing them to my mind!), I am constantly reminded that no matter what is going on in life, I have a reason to praise if I’m breathing.  This is so simple, yet so important!  Look, I know that we all have concerns in our lives and a lot we are dealing with.  I get that and I’m trying to focus more on the positive.  We are always going to have challenges and trials in life.  There’s always going to be something that causes inconveniences in our lives.  However, we need to strive to be focused on the very fact that God gives us breath each day.

 

If we wake up each morning and we are breathing, we have a reason to praise!  Period!!!!  As we look to the New Year, this is a perfect time to think about how we can change our attitude and perspective each day we wake up as the New Year begins.

 

If you take the time to listen to and read the lyrics of the song “Praise” by Elevation Worship, it will be a great reminder that we always have a reason to praise God.  We especially have a reason because we are breathing. 

 

Let’s start the New Year by focusing on praise!

Pause Before You Post

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“Pause Before You Post”

Ephesians 4:29

NIV- Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

NLT- Don’t use foul or abusive language.  Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

 

We have all had numerous times in our lives where we regret saying something to someone.  It’s been heavy on my heart and mind lately how so many people post things on social media without giving it a second thought.  The past month, I’ve actually pulled back from scrolling through posts and just let my mind rest from reading all the opinions people are putting out. 

 

Growing up, I’ve had people repeatedly tell me, in various ways, to be careful about what I say before I say it.  This is especially true when we get heated and worked up about something that we are either passionate about or that really bothers us.  No matter what we might be get worked up about or frustrated about, we should always make it a point to take a pause, thinking about what’s about to come out of our mouths and then either put it to rest or say/post in a very tactful and constructive way. 

 

So many people get emotionally scarred by things that are said each and every day.  Lately, I’ve been thinking so much about how people rant and spew opinions on social media.  Time and time again, I think about how we are called to encourage and lift others up, but unfortunately so much what is said these days is really hurtful and discourages people. 

 

What if each one of us really considers the words that come out of our mouth?  Maybe we should make more of an effort to pause and reflect before talking?  Not only do we need to pause before posting our input online, but in every day conversations with people around us.  Each day, we come into contact with various people.  Are we choosing our words carefully?  Are we thinking about how we can benefit one another and lift each other up?

 

We are told in Scripture to be the body of Christ, lifting each other up and encouraging one another.  We cannot do this effectively if we are bashing each other.  In this day and age, so many resort to posting and they don’t think twice about what is being said.  Is it to encourage each other or critique? 

 

I just want to encourage all of us to think, rethink and really consider what we are saying to others, especially online.  The past month, by pulling back more on my browsing and scrolling, I’ve felt better.  There’s just so much negativity out there and I want my mind and heart filled with positive things.  Why don’t we all strive to share positive words with others and focus on how we can build others up.  Are encouraging or discouraging others? 

Obedience Even When Things Make No Sense

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“Obedience Even When Things Make No Sense”

Joshua 6:2-5 NIV

The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.  March around the city once with all the armed men.  Do this for six days.  Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark.  On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.  When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

 

This past Sunday, the sermon at church featured this story about the collapse of the wall of Jericho.  This is one of my most favorite stories in Scripture.  One of the reasons why is having watched Veggie Tales so many years ago and remembering the hilarious animation retelling the story.  The other reason is how amazing this story is because everything they did made absolutely NO logical sense whatsoever! 

 

All the verses leading up to verse 5 give the sense that something will happen in the end like charging the wall and using weapons to tear it down.  It would make total sense to bring a crane with a wrecking ball in to smash through the wall, right??  Of course!  That’s exactly what I would have done!  But this wasn’t God’s plan at all.  He had no plans for anything physical to knock down the wall.  It was absolutely nothing but obedience and faith that God would do…..something. 

 

Verse 5 just gets me.  The wall of the city will collapse from all the shouting and marching around?  God gave them very detailed instructions of marching around and doing various things.  One loud blast and shouting and then……well…..the wall will collapse??  It just doesn’t make one bit of sense at all.  Why would God tell them to do all these things instead of telling the to grab weapons and beat the wall down that way? 

 

God wanted their obedience and faith in Him more than anything.  I’m sure it had to be on their minds why in the world God was giving them weird instructions that had absolutely NOTHING physical to do with breaking down the wall.  God told Joshua and he told the people.  I can just hear Joshua’s thoughts, “God, I sure hope this works!  I’m gonna look like a fool if it doesn’t.” 

 

Can you imagine the feeling and look on everyone’s faces when the wall did collapse?  “Whoa!  Did that just REALLY happen??  All we did was march around and then shout!  How in the world did that happen?”

 

Obedience and faith in God, even when things make absolutely no sense, is what God wants more than anything.  We gotta trust in Him even when things have no logical reason behind it.  That’s often how He works.  His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not ours.  Trust Him!

He Is So UNFAILING

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“He Is So UNFAILING”

Psalm 115: 1 NLT

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness”

 

A few weeks back, we sang a song at church called “This We Know” by Vertical Worship.  The last few words of the chorus are “Jesus, You are unfailing”.  As I pondered that day and still ponder days and weeks after, I think of all the things in life that fail us. 

 

We get our hopes up for so many things in life that end up disappointing us and letting us down.  We look forward to things and events that are coming up, but then something goes wrong and we’re left heartbroken.  People make promises and then break them.  We put a lot of hope into electronic gadgets that we buy, hoping they will never break, but they often do or lose connection.  Our vehicles break down and need repair.  People break our hearts.  We lose our jobs.  Moms lose their baby. 

 

The list could go on and on of the terrible heartbreaks that set us back and make us question why God allows so much to happen when we dedicate our lives to serving Him.  But remember that Jesus never promised us an easy life if we follow Him.  He promised just the opposite.  He wants us to put our hope in Him alone.  Everything in life and everyone will, in some way, fail us somehow.  Maybe intentionally or unintentionally, but still will. 

 

We need to be reminded always that God is 100% loving and faithful.  That will never change.  His love and faithfulness will remain forever.  That’s great news when we look around and see so many horrible things going wrong in life today.  We need something constant and that won’t break our heart….again!

 

He will NEVER fail us.  As much as I’ve been hurt by plans failing and by other people, I know that God will never fail me.  I may not understand why He allows things to happen as He does, but I know He’s never going to fail me.  I can count on Him no matter what.

 

He is so UNFAILING!