Fighting giants

When Israel was choosing their next king, God said to the prophet Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or…physical stature….For the LORD does not see as man sees;…man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart’ (v. 7 NKJV). We often tend to judge people and situations based on appearance – we look at what’s on the outside and form opinions based on what we see – and lots of time we’re wrong. For 40 days, Goliath issued the same challenge to Israel: ‘Send me your best fighting man, and I’ll kill him. I’m the champion. I’m the greatest.’

Pastor Chuck Swindoll wrote: ‘Fear and worry…don’t come just once; they come morning and evening, day after day, relentlessly trying to intimidate. They come in the form of a person, a pressure…a worry…fear that hammers on your heart…day in and day out, yelling across the ravine in your own personal valley. Few things are more persistent and intimidating than our fears and worries…especially when we face them in our own strength.’

Goliath was a giant with a booming voice and lots of bravado – three traits designed to intimidate and instil fear into even the bravest heart. But God wasn’t impressed or intimidated by him. He saw who Goliath really was, and He gave David the ability to see Goliath through His eyes. From God’s perspective, Goliath was easy to defeat, and because David didn’t battle the giant in his own strength, but in God’s, he was able to defeat him.

That kind of thinking applies to every giant we encounter in life. Once we start seeing the giants in our lives from God’s perspective, they lose their power to immobilise and intimidate us. Let’s turn to God and draw on His strength whenever we’re feeling fearful.

1 Sam 5:1-6:16; Rev 11:15-19