What Giants are in Your Life?

We have a giant problem.

I think most of us know the story of David and Goliath. You know, the one where a scrawny boy goes and slays the 9-foot giant with just a sling and a stone.

Pretty sick if you ask me.

Now, Goliath wasn’t born 9 feet tall. And whatever has a strangle-hold on you most likely didn’t arrive on day one as a threat or that big of a problem. 

We often find ourselves tolerating the harmful thing at first, even though we know it clearly goes against God’s plan. Maybe we try to justify its existence. We wrestle with it and wish it were gone. We’re annoyed the harmful thing is there in the first place, but we end up giving it free rent anyway. Before we know it, the harmful thing has established a foothold. It becomes a giant. A default routine is formed. Our giant becomes a habit in the way we think or act. Some days we fight to rid ourselves of the giant, but the problem never seems to go away entirely.

Maybe a giant called fear rules our lives. It’s not like we walk around shaking in our boots all the time. But in our most honest moments, we know anxiety is a big piece of who we are. It shakes us up and rattles our world. It makes us dread the nightmare. The fear has begun to dominate us, and at the end of the day we know it diminishes God’s glory in our life.

Maybe we are battling a rejection giant. We grew up in a performance-based environment, and because of that we’re afraid that if we don’t get everything perfect, we’re not going to get the approval we long for. We fear that people will only love us if we produce the needed result. If we ever take a break, if we ever turn in something less than perfect, if we ever say the wrong thing, if we ever show up in the wrong outfit, if we ever go slower than the frantic pace we’re going now, then all that approval is out the window.

Maybe a giant called comfort has taken hold. Comfort isn’t wrong if we’re talking about genuine rest that refreshes us. But comfort can become a huge problem if it morphs into complacency or entitlement. Too often we embrace the easiest path. But the easiest path might not be the best path, the path that Jesus invites us to take.

Maybe the giant that harms us is anger. Not rage, necessarily. Yet something smolders inside. We can’t keep a lid on our temper. Every once in a while, we lash out for no good reason. Something jumps out of us in anger, and we wish we could take it back. We know this anger is shutting down God’s best for us, but we just can’t seem to get a handle on it.

It’s likely you have a threatening giant in your life… an adversary or stronghold that’s diminishing your ability to live a full and free life. Frozen in the grip of fear, rejection, comfort or anger, we lose sight of the promise God has for our lives. Demoralized and defeated, we settle for far less than his best.

The key to living free from our giants is not better slingshot accuracy, but keeping our eyes on the one and only giant-slayer–Jesus.

Put your hope in him and watch your giants fall.

by: Cameron Cross, Director of Communications and Connections