From this point on, we can be like David. We can have God’s ways, His family, His ideas, His friends, His recreation, and His power and direction in our lives. The kind of Life Recovery living that is directed in the challenge will get the job done. When we wrap ourselves in Calvary’s victory, we begin to accept this world as seen through Jesus Christ.
By Charles Mahaney
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Looking at the life of King David, we see that Goliath proved to be one of the smallest giants David ever faced. Two armies faced each other: Is¬rael and the Philistines. The rank of the enemy camp was broken when out came the scariest-look¬ing warrior Israel had ever seen. A feeling of fear and inferiority gripped and paralyzed the entire army of Israel, but God had prepared David to lead Israel to defeat the imposing giant who faced and intimidated them. History and God’s Word tell the rest of the story. It was not the sling and the five stones that brought the giant down. It was faith in the almighty God. David never underestimated the strength of Goliath, but Goliath underestimated the strength of a man who knew and worshiped the God of heaven.
David faced many giants during his lifetime. Most were visible, but some were intangible. He faced jealousy, attack and rejection by his superi¬ors, and lust. He also came from a dysfunctional family where rebellion and sibling rivalry took him to the brink of despair. However, no matter what came his way, David never lost his giant-killing faith.
We all face Goliaths of some kind in our lives. Substance abuse, divorce, and prison are only a few of them. Their shadow falls across our pathway to intimidate and bring feelings of inferiority. These giants, visible or invisible, paralyze us with fear.
To live under tyranny and dictatorship is a hor¬rible thing, and it is humiliating to have to do things you do not want to do and to submit to indig¬nity and indecency. Evil habits will place you in the clutches of anger, fear, and bondage.
Our minds have more to do with our well-being than most of us realize. Our thoughts can attack us and eat at our lives. I am glad God does not allow all the things we imagine and worry about to come upon us. These giants, who live in the chambers of our imagination, paralyze us with thoughts of inferiority. They are intruders, and they attack and accuse. These thoughts probe and search for weak¬ness, and they have a great influence on our recov¬ery. They enter our minds uninvited, but we must not allow them to take control because there is a direct relationship between right thinking and right actions.
Do not make the mistake of thinking Life Re¬covery rests completely with God. We also have a responsibility in recovery. God has already done His part by providing us with Calvary’s victory. His sacrificial gift at the cross was completely ir¬respective of person and absolutely free of cost. The reason people’s lives are not changed is not because God has something else to do. It is because they will not do what God expects them to do.
Stan’s choice weapon is against the mind. The twelve spies who went in to spy out the Promised Land came back and said, “There we saw the gi¬ants.” Now notice the next statement: “and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers” (Numbers 13:33). We allow giants, visible or invisible, to make us feel like grasshoppers, and we throw up our hands and say, “What’s the use?” We are con¬vinced, because of obstacles and these giants, that we can never change. There will always be trouble¬some thoughts and giants that want to back us down and make us serve them.
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