Fighting Giants

Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy.  “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled. David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! (1 Samuel 17:41-46 NLT)

We all know how the story of David and Goliath ends. We know that David killed Goliath with a smooth rock and a slingshot and we know that the Israelites defeated the philistines. It is easy for us to celebrate other people’s victories over a giant, but we still hide in fear when it comes to giants that we are faced with in our own personal lives. There are two types of giants that you may be faced with fighting in your lifetime. One of the giants is meant to advance you and the other giant is a result of sin. There are two men that had to deal with giants in the bible. One of those men was David and the other man was Jonah.

Everybody was afraid of the giant that David dealt with in 1 Samuel 17. He was a test and he was a challenge, but he had to be defeated. Goliath was a champion warrior who beat everybody that came against him. Goliath was cocky, mean, intimidating, disrespectful, and loud. Goliath seemed to have the advantage over the Israelites and because of their fear, God had to call someone else in to deal with this problem. Everybody wants to be advanced, but they don’t want to go through the process of being advanced. Saul had the opportunity to go against the giant, but he was scared like the rest of his army. Saul was ready to give up his armor so that another man could go in and take the same test that everybody was being given. The crazy thing about this is that he was mad when the people honored David over him. He was intimated, and he allowed jealousy, hatred, and murder to enter into his heart against the instrument that God was using in his place.

Goliath was, what appeared to be, your worst nightmare; but God had a strategy in place to take him out. God hated Goliath just like the rest of the men, but He wanted to use a fearless and obedient vessel to defeat him. God will help you if you let Him and He will use your obedience to show others that He is strong and can be trusted. The Israelites believed in God, but they didn’t trust Him with the victory of the war that they were fighting. Whenever God came into the camp, the enemy knew that He had shown up and immediately got scared. We like to box God in instead of remembering that He is the creator of warriors. God made everything around us. Surely, He can defeat whatever giant we may be facing our lives.

David didn't need years of experience, he didn’t need people to agree with him, and he didn’t need traditional weapons. David understood that God could do anything, and he had a level of faith that nobody else in the camp had. That victory advanced David in a way that was unexpected and in a season that was unexpected. David had already been anointed to be king, but he had not been introduced and announced to Israel yet. The victory that David had against Goliath was David’s public introduction.

Now the flip side of advancement is delay and stagnation. God cannot promote you if you are disobedient. This was the case with Jonah. Jonah was given a command, but instead of doing it, he choose to leave the presence of the Lord and go in a direction that God did not tell him to go in. When God gives you any type of assignment, it does not matter if you agree with it because He has a reason for asking you to do it. I believe that God wanted to deal with something on the inside of Jonah, but Jonah was not having it. He thought that it was better to run from God than it was to be a willing vessel. Due to Jonah’s sin, he had to encounter a giant that could have avoided if only He had remembered Who it is that He serves.

The giant that Jonah dealt with came as a result of sin. Unlike David, Jonah did not deal with a man, but he dealt with a beast that any man, even goliath would have been scared of. It’s a bad thing to be able to rest in your sin when God wants to bring you out of it and use you. Jonah was disobedient to God and didn’t want to make it right. The wages of sin is death. Death can be an ugly thing if you don’t have life insurance with Jesus Christ. A great fish swallowed Jonah. He was not able to eat him because God wanted to teach him a lesson. Some lessons are bought instead of being taught because the bought lessons stick to you the longest. Jonah had to go into the belly of the whale so that he would not sin again. 

The only way of the hands of God when He is angry is repentance. The only way to defeat the giant that comes into your life because of sin, is repentance. Jonah sat in the belly of a great fish for 3 days because of his sin, but he had he the good sense to tell God that he was sorry. If Jonah had to do that, what do you think we will have to do? God loves us so much that He has not allowed any giant to destroy us because He is waiting for us to reconcile with Him. We pray and look for a way out of bad situations, but we have refused to simply tell the Lord that we sorry and truly mean it.

You can’t fight the giant that comes as a result of sin on your own. You need Jesus, but first you have to repent. You have to decide to not run from God and run into instead. God gives us lessons so that we will not have to bump our head 1 million times. Take heed to this lesson! 

Lord in Jesus name, I ask that you forgive me for all of my sins. Lord, I repent for disobedience. I repent for not trusting you. I repent for moving slowing concerning the command that you have given me. I repent for unforgiveness, judging others, gossiping, and all other sins that I have committed both knowingly and unknowingly. I pray psalm 51:10 over myself today. I pray that you will create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. I pray that your grace will overtake me, and I pray to show that same grace to others. I thank you for renewal and refreshing today. I thank you for grace and mercy today. I thank you for Micah 7:19 which says that you will have compassion on me, trample my sins under your feet and throw them into the sea. God there is no other love like yours and I thank you for showering me with it. In Jesus name, Amen.

Recommended Reading: 1Samuel 17, Jonah 1, Isaiah 1:18

Note: David was not naïve concerning the giant that he was going up against. He got insight before he went against him. Know why the giant you are fighting is in your life and have a strategy to take its head off. Insight and strategic weapons to defeat your enemies comes from the Lord. Jonah didn't try to get out of the great on his own because he knew why he was in its belly. He prayed and asked God to forgive him; that is how he was released from the grip of the giant that was holding him. You have got to seek the Lord in order to win the wars that you will have to fight in your life time. You can not do it alone, you need Jesus....