Choosing to Fight

Choosing to Fight

My natural tendency is to run. To hide. I don't like facing up to difficult or uncomfortable situations. I never have. I generally flee from conflict. From hardness. From danger.

But, David wasn't given this luxury. At least, he didn't claim it. I suppose he could have if he had chosen to. (I Samuel 17)

Life has giants. It just does. They are there whether we ask for them or not. We might be like David, faithfully watching over his father's sheep. Minding the business before us. But there was Goliath. And he was David's enemy. He was David's giant to overthrow. David could have hid. He could have run. But he didn't. He chose to not only overthrow his enemy, but to also overthrow his fear. God was on his side. God enabled him to stand. To fight. To overcome. 



Webster's definition of a giant is this:

1 : "an imaginary person of great size and strength."

2 : "a person or thing that is very large, successful, or powerful."



Some giants are very real and standing right in front of us. Physical things. Circumstantial. Evil oppression. Wrong doings. Wounds. While other giants, are imaginary. I think this is why Christ Jesus told us, "Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ"; These could be things of our mind. As simple as, a negative thought. A wrong thought. Depression. Feelings.


Giants come in all shapes and disguises. We all have them somewhere in our lives. Whether in our past, our present, or near future. But one thing is certain. A giant must be defeated. And it must be defeated completely. And it can only be defeated by being faced boldly. David would never have defeated Goliath by running away or staying outside the camp with the sheep. In the same way, you will never defeat your giant by running or delaying or hiding either. How often I have tried to do this. But we forfeit what is meant to be our victory! And others suffer for it. David, although surrounded by an army of fellow soldiers, stood before Goliath alone. He didn't have a crowd behind him. At least, not one that was helping him. We must to be willing and ready to fight alone. Often our biggest enemy is discouragement, and often that comes from the people who are on our side of the camp. Like David's brothers. But, praise God, we are given an infallible weapon! Faith. David said, "I come in the name of the LORD". And that is the exact same name, to which we are promised, "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess". When God tells you to slay a giant, He also gives you the weapon in order to defeat it. David couldn't trust Saul's armor. We cannot just depend on what others suggest we fight with. It doesn't work. We go with God. And we go with what God gives us. We have nothing to fear from giants. We have all we need to stand strong. To stand confident. To stand ready. To stand victorious. We only have much to lose from ignoring them. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "There are two ways of dealing with adversity. One way, the easier, is to ignore it altogether. I have got about as far as that. The other and more difficult way is to face up to it and triumph over it. I can't manage that yet, but I must learn to do it." 

Spiritual Lessons

The weight of heartaches long past

The Bible says in Philippians 3:13 and 14 - “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Bitterness is deceptive. It comes in many different forms. It can be offenses and hurts, not so easily forgotten. It might be direct anger towards another person. It may be an upset towards an uncomfortable situation. It could even be a subtle choice, to simply not let go of an old heartache or depressing circumstance. I recently asked the Lord to search me. To try me; to see if there be any wicked way in me. To see if I had bitterness in my heart. It is a scary thing to pray, unless you mean to deal seriously with God and those around you. And even still, it can be a painful ripping of the deep roots surrounding your soul. But by His grace, He dealt with me with tender and loving compassion. And He did show me. The inward struggle of a heartache not so easily forgotten. My own bitterness towards a dark circumstance in my life. I hadn't “gotten over it” yet. And although I didn't know it, my failure in “forgetting those things which are behind” was hindering my “reaching forth unto those things which are before”. My past was haunting my present. And my bitterness towards this hard trial now past, was crippling my future. It felt as if there was some kind of hold over who I am now. It became a comfortable harbor of excuses for why I was acting the way I was. Which, is scary. I sought the pity of others, and disregarded anyone who didn't understand. It was a nasty place to be. Yet, it was also a subtle place; for again, I honestly didn't know I was there. Not until the Lord showed me. Trials are only for as season. They do not last forever. They are not suppose to last forever. But I think sometimes, we make them longer than God ever intended them to be, simply because we are bitter towards our trials and refuse to let go of our hurts. Pain becomes more comfortable than healing.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” 

(II Corinthians 5: 17-18)

When we are saved, we are made new creatures by Christ Jesus. And with this new nature, comes a new power. A power which is able to state that “old things are passed away”. It is a fact. And that “all things become new”. When we are in Christ, this applies to us. And it applies to our bitter state also. We have been given the power through Christ to “[forget] those things which are behind”. We have been promised the victory. We can lay it all down at Jesus' feet and claim His forgiveness and healing. Burdens are still lifted at Calvary.

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

 (Romans 8:37)

There is no denying that heartaches are bitterly painful. That some wounds go too deep to even emotionally or verbally express. But, even when we cannot explain, and still no other human could begin to understand, God still knows our heartaches, our sorrows. And He is ready to be our solace; ready to heal. Ready to forgive. He is waiting to be our victory. To renew our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And He is ready to begin yet again, with something new.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside very weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12: 1-2)