Trials Aren't Always A Bad Thing - January 24, 2015

    

Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We will all face giants at some point in our lives. By giants, I'm talking about problems and issues that we allow to imprison our minds and hopes; so much so that we can't see anything but the problem. We try to forget or kill these giants, but often they seem to only grow stronger with the attempts to forget and with the passing of time.

What have you allowed to become a giant in your life; what seems to overshadow God?

It might be a giant of fear. Or it might be a giant of some type of poor judgment or behavior that you fall into again and again. It might be the giant of pride or envy or gluttony or lust or something else. Only you and God knows your giant.

Giants don't always start out as giants...they're little things that we feed and nurture. Giants are the little things that nag and gnaw at us that we ignore until the nagging and gnawing causes pain

So how do we deal with giants? The answer can be found in the Old Testament account of David and Goliath.

Giant killing is a three step process

1) Recognize that giants are common to all of our lives    1 Corinthians 10:13

2) Acknowledge that the fight is God's 1 Samuel 17:37

3) Don't wait for your giant to approach - attack it 1 Samuel 17: 47-48

Whatever your giant , call it out into the light of day. Stop rationalizing it. Stop excusing it.  Stop tip-toeing around it. Realize you can't defeat it in your own strength.

Call down the power of  God in prayer, and then attack your giant. Cleanse yourself by drawing lines of accountability first to God and then to others. Stay away from people or situations that would prevent you from facing your giant in accordance to God's instruction; don't let that giant back into your life again.