Is there a Goliath in your life?

Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:45-47

Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."

Objective:

Everyone has a Goliath or several, seemingly unsurmountable challenges, in their lives. Goliath was a Philistine giant who intimidated and humiliated all of Israel and insulted their God. No one wanted to take him on and their fear of him rendered them ineffective to either defend God's name and honor or to live a normal existence. A man of great faith, a very young man, who had found favor with the God of Israel was the exception. He was empowered by God to deal with Goliath and willingly accepted the role God would have him play.  Because David knew God, he had the confidence to speak boldly to Goliath and predict that his God would prevail against him and that all the earth would know about his demise. 

Application:

Using the example in this passage of Scripture as our example, wouldn't our Goliaths be cut down to size and be more manageable if we measured them by how big our God is? How differently would we approach our seemingly unsurmountable challenges if our perspective was similar to David's as he confronted his Goliath. Goliath's weapons were nothing compared to what David had - he was prepared to do battle in the name of the Lord of hosts. There are very serious struggles to be faced in this life - to be sure - are any of them too big for God to handle? And when He does handle those struggles for us - do we allow His handiwork to be seen so that all the earth knows that there is a God on the throne? David boldly stepped into the valley of Elah and we should do the same in our own valleys. Goliath was dead before he crashed to the ground from a small smooth stone thrown from the righteous hand of a shepherd boy. How different would our outcomes be if we looked at our own Goliaths and declared they were powerless against our all-powerful God? 

Prayer:

Lord I pray that You will give us a fresh perspective on how much bigger You are than any problems we might face. I pray that You will give us a bolder spirit in approaching our challenges so that Your power and glory outshine all fears and that we make You and assured victory the focus. Lord, help us to slay the giants in our lives and live a life of triumphant faith. We pray this in the name of Jesus, who will defeat all enemies. Amen.