Giants In My Life

 

  It’s out there, all around us, and everyone is borderline paranoid.  Some are even panicked.  Yet, there isn’t a lot we can do, except wait and use good common sense.  It’s amazing how a flu type virus can up-end an entire country, yet, here we are.  It’s got a huge grip on all our lives and it’s still squeezing.

More than a year later, there are still cases of the virus across the world and the statistics tell us it’s getting worse via a brand new strain, but of course, that totally depends on who you talk to.  There are precautions we are still needing to take, and talk of making more mandates about masks and the vaccine.  

The encounters of giants are all through the Bible.  In Deuteronomy, it was the descendants of Anak, and then there was Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion’s den, and even the enemies of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego when they refused to kneel before the statue. 

Giants don’t have to be big and mighty, like Goliath, lions or even the ‘giant’ descendants of Anak.  Today, it’s the Coronavirus.  It’s so small, the naked eye can’t even see it, yet the fierceness has many people in knots, filled with despair and dread.  It's disrupting lives everywhere across the globe.  Even now doctors will weigh the urgency of surgery so as not to put a patient at even greater risk of infection, with all the germs from the virus.

Giants come in so many forms, although they seem to network together, making them seem even larger, and thus more threatening. There are monsters like loneliness, worry, doubt, failure, jealousy, anger and resentment, along with fear and discouragement just to name a few.  They link arms and twist themselves through our being so tight, we can barely breathe!

Our first instincts are to run and hide because the champions just seem too large for us to master.  The second might be to surrender, because no matter what precautions we take, the giant, whatever form it takes, is going to overtake us and win anyway.  These kinds of thoughts are exactly what Satan wants.  

The evil one loves it when we cave!  He jumps with glee when he sees our knees begin to weaken and knuckle under the stress.  Stress.  It keeps dumping on us until we don’t know which way to turn.  In some ways, the stress in our lives can be a giant unto itself!  And managing that beast can be difficult!  I know.  I’ve been there!

But God has other plans for our lives.  When we run and hide, or even cave to those ogres, we are saying God is not a conqueror!  We are not believing he has the capability of performing a miracle or working things out for our good, because the odds don’t look in our favor.  When we react this way, we are projecting a huge lack of faith!

Regardless of the giants we face, as Believers, we serve a Mighty God who will fight for us!  We need to stand tall and face the giant just as David did, even if all we have are small stones!  The challenge before us is great, but with God’s strength, we can be conquerors!  He is greater than any, and all, foes before us.  Let’s join together, and trust the God ‘who can!’