Goliath Must Fall: Winning the Battle Against Your Giants

by Louie Giglio

Yet it’s likely all of us have something lurking nearby that’s stealing our

I have a tendency to want to change whatever environment I am in. I want to make things better. I see what is, but I dream of what can be.

tribe,

The fear has begun to dominate us, and at the end of the day we know it diminishes God’s glory in our life.

But the easiest path might not be the best path, the path that Jesus invites us to take.

If some form of bondage is in our lives, if some attitude seemingly can’t be shaken, if some character flaw apparently can’t be overcome, if some thought darkens our mind, if some problem has sunk its teeth into our life and we can’t shake it as we move through our day, then take heart, because none of these giants are a match for Jesus. All these giants can—and will—fall.

night. As I named the things that I sought to control, I would say to myself, That belongs to God.

get that feeling. You’re grappling with the two overlapping realities. This calls for truth immersion. When we struggle with our giants, we sometimes mistakenly wish for Jesus to go to the cross all over again. We come to Jesus in prayer and say, “Jesus, I’ve got a giant. Please do something about it right now! Please do something big!” and we want something huge and supernatural and miraculous and brand new to happen.

We say with our lips that our salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3).

For us, our response to the image of the severed head should be to praise God for what he has done. We can look at the head of the giant and realize once and for all that the giant doesn’t hold any more power over us. We don’t need to be afraid of that gross and gruesome hunk of bloody flesh. We can say with confidence, “Hey, this thing used to harass me. But—praise God—it’s just a skull with some meat on it now. The giant doesn’t harass me anymore!”

When you believe that Jesus is bigger than whatever it is you’re facing, something is going to shift in you.

Fear is a big deal in the story of us and God. In Scripture, the commandment repeated the most is the commandment to fear not. Someone added these up, and apparently there are 366 “fear nots” in the Bible—one “fear not” for every day of the year—including Leap Year. Plus, there are a lot of related directives such as “Do not be afraid,” “Take courage,” and “Take heart.”

The opposite of fear is faith. And faith begins by us saying, “I have confidence in God that he is bigger than this giant.”

1. Fear comes from our conditioning.

We need to shed those feelings of impending doom at the foot of the cross.

But there is good news. As soon as Peter said, “Lord, save

me,” immediately Jesus grabbed him. There was no hesitation. No delay. It says “immediately.” Jesus was closer to Peter than he thought.

God can work instantaneously. In fact, by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, somebody can be broken free from the chains of the giant of fear right here and now, this very moment as you’re reading this book. You can shut the cover and never be demoralized by that giant again.

As we soak and meditate on his words, we replace in our brain what we are afraid of.

Do we want to combat the fear in our lives? The battle is not ours. The battle belongs to the Lord. Jesus has already taken the sling and the stone and slain the giant. The giant of fear has already fallen. The work is already done by Christ on the cross. Our responsibility is to have faith. That’s the antidote. God is able. Jesus is enough. When we set our eyes on him, we will not be shaken. We will rest secure.

We’ve all felt this, although maybe the messages were said to us differently. “You’re never going to do that.” “Don’t get any crazy ideas.” “Don’t get your hopes up.” “You’re never going to amount to anything.” “You’re not smart enough.” “You’re not talented enough.” “You’re not beautiful enough.” “You’re not worthy enough.” “You’re not wanted enough.”

Sounds simplistic, I know. Yet it’s powerful to walk through your day mindful of your true worth. You are worth Jesus to God.

But hey, don’t let me get in between you and God’s Word. Read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, the “hall of fame” faith chapter in the Bible, and you’ll see what I mean. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (v. 1). That’s seldom comfortable.

People ask, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” It means to put our faith in the work of Jesus. What is the work of Jesus? That he came to earth. He lived. He was crucified. He was resurrected. He ascended into heaven. He sent the Spirit of God, and he’s now living inside of us. This is the gospel. This is what we believe, and it all hinges around a very uncomfortable moment.

We remember the point of our lives is the fame of Jesus.

Took two readings to understand what he means

That’s what matters—letting Jesus be known. The goal of our faith isn’t to settle into a nice comfortable job and a nice easy routine. The goal is to say, “God, I’m available for whatever you want me to do. When you call on me I will step forward and say, ‘In the name of the Lord God Almighty, I will step into the fight.’ Not in my ability. Not in my power. Not in my strength. But in the name of Jesus. Life is short, and I don’t have enough time to have a complacent heart.”

Life Is Short. God Is Big.

We fight complacency whenever we ask God to help us see what hangs in the balance. Faith is never just about us and our lives. Faith is about benefiting people we don’t even know. Not only is our freedom, our salvation, our purpose in life, our getting on board with what God has for us hanging in the

people. Yet if you move in faith, God will always breathe life on your journey.

Most anger is rooted in some form of rejection.

Jesus Christ Almighty, in his life, death, burial, and resurrection, has killed the giant called anger. The giant of anger is dead. It may still be talking to you and me, it might still be taunting us, it may still have deadly venom in its fangs, but the giant of anger is already dead.

The key to real, lasting change in our spiritual life is consistently filling ourselves up with faith.

We replace the angry conversations in our minds with praying for the people we’re angry at.

because it demoralizes us and diminishes the glory of God. How? Because it robs God of his own rightful declaration about who he is. God says, I am the one who’s going to avenge all wrongs. If we really believe that, then we would say, “Wow, okay, so there legitimately is an injustice here. But God has promised that he’s going to avenge what I can’t avenge.”

To relinquish avenging to the Lord is not to brush our unresolved conflicts under the rug.

Our freedom comes from anchoring our hope in the fact that our great God defends us and rights all wrongs. Therefore, while we are waiting on God’s justice we can operate from forgiveness, not for it.

Perfect

What you want is to be able to lie down tonight in your bed and sleep in peace in the shadow of the cross.

because you hold no grudges against me.” In that moment when you forgive, the Devil isn’t

This affirms that we believe what God did for us is greater than what anyone could do against us.

That’s a tough blanket to spread, isn’t

peace.” As soon as we leave intimacy with God, we leave peace with God and a place with God.

Businessmen are living lives of shame—present at a men’s breakfast at their church, but harboring infidelity on the

side.

But freedom happens in the light.

Until you are okay with being seen as needy or weak, you will never walk in true strength.

In the midst of your fight, the Enemy will most likely add this dagger—If God is so good, then why has all this hardship and pain come into your life?

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,” Paul said to him (v. 31).

We recognize that God is pursuing us with relentless passion.

Maybe it’s you and Jesus and a journal, working this out together.