Facing Giants
How Can We Fight the Giants In Our Lives?
Do you have any giant problems, issues, dilemmas, complications or difficulties in your life? I’ve been facing a few giant quandaries this past year—financial hits, relational jams , and professional snags.
Are you facing any giants? Maybe it’s a giant job difficulty, or lack-of-a-job difficulty. Maybe you’re facing a giant health problem, or maybe a loved one if sick, or dying or even passed away. Maybe you have some giant financial problems, and you wish you had a giant bank account. Maybe you have a giant relationship problem, or a giant relationship hole—you want to be in a relationship. Or maybe your giant is you are a Giants (or Angels’) fan, and those mean old Dodgers keep winning!
How can we face & fight the giants in our lives?
Let’s look at the classic story of David and Goliath by examining King Saul’s strategies against giants. Saul became the very first human king of Israel. God was their king, but they wanted to be like the other countries, they begged for a king, and along came Saul.
Saul looked the part. He was head and shoulders above everyone else, tall, strong & handsome and he looked presidential. Saul was the consensus first pick in the king draft, he ran unopposed, he was named the first king of the Jews and he proceeded to do everything…wrong. He consistently made the incorrect decision, always picked the improper scheme, and constantly inappropriately missed the mark. Saul actually played a major antagonist role in the David versus Goliath narrative.
So the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.
Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet[c] tall…Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!” –1 Samuel 17:3-10 (NLT)
It was not uncommon in those days for battles to be fought one-on-one, man-on-man, rather than army-on-army. One leader would make a challenge, and if the other side refused, it would be considered a defeat for them.
Let’s look at Saul for an example of what not to do when approaching giants in life:
1. Cower in fear
“When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.”—1 Samuel 17:11 (NLT)
When the giant emerged, Saul got scared. He was terrified, he was deeply shaken. He was the leader, he showed fear and so did everyone else.
When we come face to face with a giant, we probably get scared. That’s a logical first response, but cowering in fear, shrinking because we are terrified isn’t the best way to go.
For forty days, every morning and evening, the Philistine champion strutted in front of the Israelite army. —1 Samuel 17:16 (NLT)
As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright.—1 Samuel 17:24 (NLT)
“The enemy of creativity...is fear. We're all born creative; it takes a little while to become afraid.
A surprising insight: an enemy of fear is creativity. Acting in a creative way generates action, and action persuades the fear to lighten up.” --Seth Godin
2. Do nothing
…they were so frightened of Goliath that they couldn’t do a thing.—1 Samuel 17:11 (CEV)
Denial is a defense mechanism; it isn’t an effective strategy for dealing with giants. Denial is a short-term coping tool; it is not a long-range tactic for handling obstacles.
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered: "Sure why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it. Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.
3. Throw money at it
“The king has offered a huge reward to anyone who kills him. He will give that man one of his daughters for a wife, and the man’s entire family will be exempted from paying taxes!” —1 Samuel 17:25 (NLT)
Saul, the schemer, comes up with a plan. Instead of stepping up and fighting the giant himself—after all, he was the Jewish giant, he decides to hire out a mercenary to do the job. Whoever takes the job gets some cash, one of Saul’s daughters in marriage and read my lips, no taxes!
Saul decides to throw some money at the problem. And he decides to throw his daughter at the problem.
Money talks, but all mine ever says is, “Good-bye!”
4. Go negative
“Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. – 1 Samuel 17:32-33 (NLT)
“It’ll never work.” “We are doomed.” “I can’t win for losing.” “I always get the short end of the stick.” “I’m so low I’ll have to look up to see the bottom.” “If I didn’t have bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” “I can’t keep my head above water.”
Saul became negative.
Zig Ziglar said, “Some people find fault like there is a reward for it.”
5. Abdicate
Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!” Then Saul gave David his own armor—a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. —1 Samuel 17:37-38 (NLT)
Finally Saul abdicated. He refused to lead. He let the water boy fight his fight. He stood back and got ready to blame someone else.
Do you realize there are certain things we can’t delegate, we can’t abdicate?
We can’t delegate marriage
We can’t delegate parenting
We can’t delegate integrity
We can’t delegate influence
You can’t delegate responsibility
These are five Saul-like steps not to take when you face a giant: get scared; ignore it; throw money at it; become jaded and abdicate.
I’ve tried just about all those strategies in life. I’ve run away, I’ve been locked in denial, I’ve tried to pay someone else to do my work, I’ve given into negativity, and I’ve just given up.
I can attest that those approaches don’t work. So, what does?
Let’s shift to David and look at two ways he fought and how we can fight the giants in our lives:
6. Reframe it
But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”—1 Samuel 17:34-37 (NLT)
David wasn’t seeing a giant; he was seeing a giant opportunity.
“The majority see the obstacles; the few see the objective; history records the successes of the later, while oblivion is the reward of the former.” --Alfred Armand Montapert
"Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success." ~ William S. Gilbert
Here is the simple reframing question: Why would God allow this obstacle to appear?
He must have a plan.
I suspect God has a pretty amazing purpose for me amidst my giants.
7. Step toward the giant with faith
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! And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”—1 Samuel 17:46-47 (NLT)
Fight with faith, not with fear.
As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.
So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone…--1 Samuel 17:48-50 (NLT)
Here is the simple faith question: What is my next step of faith with this obstacle?
My guess is God has already set things up for you and me to burst through our obstacles. We just need to take faith steps to realize the victory.
It is amazing what happens when we keep stepping forward with a little bit of faith.
If we can replace the fear, paralysis, bribery, negativity and abdication strategies for reframing and faith, we might just be able to watch our giants fall.