The Bible in 90 Days--Day 21--Don't Feed the Giants!

Hello Everyone!

Life has continued to be busy over in my corner of the world, but as I work my way through each busy day I am still thinking over the mornings Bible reading.

It has been awhile now, but around a week ago I was reading in 1 Samuel chapter 17, which contains the well known story of David and Goliath. I'm sure you are familiar with the story yourself. Israel's army was camped in the Valley of Elah, with the Philistines on one hill and the Israelites on another. The valley was in between the two armies, and every day Goliath would stand in the valley and shout to the soldiers of Israel, ridiculing their God, daring them to come and fight him.

The Israelite soldiers were terrified, and rightly so. Goliath was HUGE, over 9 feet tall. He was covered with armor such as none of them had. And he was coming to kill them. Was the danger real? You bet it was! This was not a figment of their imagination, and it was only too real of a possibility that pretty soon they--to use a term of today's language--would be toast!

But into this very same situation comes David, just a young man. Reality has not changed. Goliath is still there, big and scary as ever. But David chooses to look at something else. Instead of looking at how big the Giant was, he looks at how big his God is. And when he comes against Goliath, he states these faith-filled words:

"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands." 1 Samuel 17:45-47

Goliath wasn't even dead yet when David was making this statement--didn't he stop to think that this could make Goliath REALLY mad at him? No, he didn't! Same giant. Same problems. Different direction of view.

Makes me wonder. Where am "I" looking? Whatever we want to get bigger, we give attention to and feed. Whether it is our children, a kitten, garden plants, or anything--if we give it attention, and feed it, it is most likely going to grow bigger. So, if I am giving attention to all my problems, they are of necessity only going to grow bigger--at least in my mind they will be bigger. Soon they will fill every nook and cranny, and life will seem bleak indeed! They are GIANTS, and I am scared of them. . . Or I can choose instead to feed my faith. To focus on how big my God is, and how whatever my problem is, it is not a problem for Him.

Don't feed the Giants. Instead, feed your Faith!