Do you ever get up in the morning, all ready to face the new challenges of the day and find that yesterday’s giants are still there, waiting to drag you back into the failures of yesterday?
Maybe your giant is an ongoing conflict with a friend or family member. You want to just move on, but they continue to remind you of that thing in the Past. Character flaws, like lack of self-control, or a tendency to be angry or critical can stem from that Giant from the Past as well. That giant from the past can take the shape of Shame. The Bible says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We all have things that we could or should be ashamed of, don’t we?
Or maybe your Giant is an Addiction that you just can’t seem to kick, be it physical, emotional or chemical. Maybe your addiction is electrical. It’s easy to become addicted to your phone, no matter what your age.
What about Unmet Expectations? That’s a big one. Sometimes we get our sights set upon something and believe that we just can’t be happy without it. Maybe it’s an ideal relationship, or lifestyle that we believe we deserve. Maybe it’s material things we want to own. Being all eaten up with desire for something that we don’t have is a sure way to destroy any happiness you have right now.
But you can probably see where this is going: Giants are bigger than we are, and that means that we are overpowered by them. They loom large over our lives, but sometimes we only know they are there by the shadow that they cast. Everything in front of us grabs our attention so that we don’t have the mental awareness to step back and look at things objectively.
Are you frustrated because your plans seem to be constantly thwarted? Does it seem like time slips away from you and you can’t accomplish the things you set out to do this morning? Do you end up feeling defeated in the afternoon at what you didn’t do–or at what you did do, that you meant not to do?
You are probably fighting a giant.
Do you remember the story of David and Goliath? David was a teenage shepherd who was sent to deliver food to his older brothers who were in the king’s army. When he arrived, he saw that the entire force was cowering before a Philistine giant named Goliath, who swore at them and blasphemed the holy name of God.
Goliath was huge. The book of first Samuel records his height as “six cubits and a span.” A cubit is the length of a man’s elbow to his middle fingertip (about 18″), and a span is the width of a man’s spread fingers to his outstretched thumb (about 6-8″). So Goliath was at least nine and a half feet tall! That might be taller than the ceiling in the room you are in right now.
His coat of mail was made of brass, and weighed “five thousand shekels,” or about 140 lbs! You know how tired you get carrying a backpack with twenty pounds in it? Goliath’s chain mail, the “gorget” covering his back (a hanging plate), and the “greaves” on his legs (armor that covers the shins), probably weighed more than David’s whole body! Goliath also had a large, brass helmet, and the head of his spear weighed 600 shekels or about 17 pounds.
David wasn’t afraid; he understood that fear was a form of worship. He was enraged. He didn’t see Goliath’s size; he only heard the blasphemy Goliath spoke. David said, “What will be done for the man that takes away the reproach from Israel, and kills this Philistine who defies the armies of the living God?”
So they brought him before Saul, the king of Israel, and David told him what Goliath had said, and asked to be able to fight Goliath. Saul denied David, for David was just a boy, and Goliath was a giant soldier who had trained to fight from his youth.
But David said, “The Lord delivered me out of the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear; he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” So King Saul let David go. What choice did he have? For no one else was willing.
David the Shepherd by Elizabeth Jane Gardner, 1895.
David stepped forward, without any armor, and his only weapon was the sling in his hand and five smooth stones in the pouch by his side.
Goliath laughed and said, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? Send me a champion,” he said, “and I will feed his flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.”
Then David spoke.
“You come to me with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today, the Lord will deliver you into my hand; and I will smite you, and take your head from you, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, and by this, all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel.”
So Goliath began to move, but David ran toward Goliath. He took one stone, put it in his sling, and cast it. The stone perfectly threaded the space between the bridge of Goliath’s nose and the bottom edge of his helmet, and the stone sunk deep into his forehead. With that, Goliath fell face forward onto the earth.
David used Goliath’s own sword to cut off the giant’s head. And when the Philistine army saw that their champion was dead, they ran. The armies of Israel and Judah followed, and chased them all the way back to Gath, Goliath’s home town, and beyond.
The king of Israel, Saul, said to the captain of his army, Abner, “Whose son is this?” For David was a “nobody.” But David, son of Jesse, is now one of the most famous men in history.
When David fought a giant, he was just a nobody. How was he able to defeat the giant that frightened even the hardest fighting men from the army of Israel? I noticed a few things:
1) David wasn’t worried about his future.
David focused on the fact that Goliath had defiled the name of God, and was therefore doomed. In Israel, the punishment for blasphemy was death. David wasn’t concerned about the future Goliath predicted for him (that David would become food for the birds).
David loved and trusted God so much that he didn’t even think about himself. He valued God’s name more than his own life! (No wonder God said David was a “man after God’s own heart.” 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22)
2) David used what he had: A sling.
Saul tried to give David his own armor. (What a great honor to be given the armor of the king!) But Saul was much larger than David, so David declined the offer. He knew his power wasn’t in a weapon or in armor, but flowed from God.
3) David was simply himself.
Instead of trying to fit into someone else’s “shoes,” David was comfortable in his own skin (as a simple shepherd). He didn’t even try to be a soldier. Keep in mind that a shepherd was the lowest position one could hold in the Israeli society. But David was comfortable in that role, and he didn’t pretend to be something he wasn’t.
4) David trusted God.
When David assessed the situation, he recognized his own weakness. He knew he had been able to rescue a lamb from the mouth of a lion and a bear, because God had done it through him. And if God had done it once, he would do it again. It wasn’t about size and ability; it was about faith.
A few weeks ago, I had to fight a giant. It wasn’t a battle I was expecting, so I wasn’t really prepared. The giant attacked when I was exhausted and in an unfamiliar place. He wore the aspect of a friend.
It took me a while to figure out what the giant was. The fight wasn’t about now, it was about things I didn’t understand that came from the past. And so I couldn’t fight it. We can’t do anything to change the past.
I prayed to the Lord to help me, because I was overwhelmed. I felt there was nothing I could do or say that would stop the attacks of that giant. And the answer came from God.
I heard the sentence come out of my mouth, “I am not who I was!” And there was silence. And the giant went away. I thought about this for a long time.
Sometimes even after God has changed our hearts, other people don’t see that we have changed. They are still fighting the same battles with who we used to be in their minds, and they see times spent apart as just breaks between rounds, when we go swish out our mouths and take a breather. Then the bell rings. Some of those battles can last for years, or even decades. Maybe even lifetimes.
We cannot change how others see us because it is not in our power. All we control is our own behavior. And in long-term relationships, we can become enmeshed in the expectations of others, until it seems there is no way to escape.
But God brings us freedom. It really is as simple as running to him and asking for release. David wrote the following words:
“Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:12 – 13
God gives us hope, a new life, a new way of being. He fills us with joy instead of bitterness. He binds up the brokenhearted, and proclaims liberty to the captives. He opens the prison for those who are bound. He gives beauty for ashes. He plants us as “trees of righteousness, that He might be exalted.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)
God changes us, not by making our lives free of challenges, but by empowering us.
Let the giants come!
David with the Head of Goliath by Forabosco, 1670.
We don’t have to pretend to be something we are not or to possess something we don’t have. Like David, we can just be ourselves and know that when we walk according to his Spirit, God will defend us. Because we have surrendered to His will, he will empower us and work through us. We become like funnels, receiving His goodness and power from above and then channeling it to bless those around us.
And when some earthly giant comes to attack, we can shout: “I am not who I was! I am a servant of the living God, and you have no power over me!”
Down falls the Giant from the Past with a hole in his forehead!
“I am not who I was!”
Down falls the Giant Addiction!
“I don’t serve you, I serve the Living God!”
Down falls the Giant of Unrealistic Expectations!
“I am surrendered to The Lord of Hosts, not my own desires!”
If we fight in our own strength, relying on our own wills or our own logic to save us, we are guaranteed to be overwhelmed, and out of our depth. But if we allow ourselves to be filled with the Spirit of God, there is no limit to what we can do.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
II Corinthians 12:9
The Fullers Four 