Goliath Must Fall: Winning the Battle Against Your Giants

by Louie Giglio

Some people are addicted to people.

Do you know what the most widespread addiction out there is today? It’s this: the approval of others.

We Are All Vulnerable

In the end, the addiction brings death to every good thing around us.

Fortunately, there is a solution: Christ. Jesus takes down the giant of our addictions. And we’ve got to derail this harmful trajectory of turning toward harm whenever we feel pain. Chaos still happens in the world, and we will still fight the feelings of vulnerability. That fight won’t stop. We will still want to cover up and cope. But the solution, instead of running to an addiction, is running to Jesus. We can be confident and secure when we’re immersed in intimacy with God.

We try to put on false armor all the time. We feel powerless in a broken world.

We’re afraid. We feel open to attack, so we hide, and we hide in addictions.

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

God wants us to understand that our vulnerability isn’t the worst thing in the world. Whenever we feel vulnerable, God invites us to run to him.

His God was way bigger than the giant.

One of the beautiful things about this word—vulnerable—is that right within the middle of the word we see this promise . . . VulnerABLE

With God, we are able. We are able because God is able. Thanks to our vulnerability, we are weak. But thanks to God, we are strong.

In him, we find the freedom to be “naked and unashamed” with our loving Creator. We come to him just as we are. No hiding. No masking. No pretending we’re anything other than our real selves. Jesus knows. He loves us. He calls us his beloved sons and daughters. In Jesus, we are forgiven. In Jesus, we are redeemed. In Jesus, we are loved. In Jesus, we are safe.

There is a God-sized hole in our souls that can only be filled with an intimate and real relationship with Jesus.

Addiction is not bad, if we reroute our cravings toward something (Someone) good.

We find joy because Jesus embraces us as we are. Jesus doesn’t push us away. He accepts us in his love, and he infuses us with his life. We exchange our weakness for his strength. When we are vulnerable, Jesus is ABLE.

Christ lives in me, and because of him I truly live. Because of Jesus, my giants have fallen.

If you ask me, the church needs a whole lot more grace addicts because grace has a name, and the name is Jesus.

Being a grace addict is a good thing,

“Jesus, you are my only hope, and I’m clinging to you my whole life long.”

Probably the greatest lie of all when we’re facing our addictions is that we can wage the battle on our own.

But the ABLE comes with being honest with God and with those around us.

Because of Christ, the giant is done.

freedom happens in the light.

You are free in Christ the instant you place your trust in him.

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

When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

To keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I am strong. I am strong because Christ’s power lives in me.

celebrate your weakness by admitting your vulnerability. Let Jesus embrace you as you are. Let him accept you in his love. Let Jesus infuse his strength into your life. Allow Jesus to give you the power to exchange your weakness for his strength.

That’s the irony—the outcome is the opposite of what’s expected. While we are praying something like, “God, get me out of the Valley of Elah,” God is keeping us there, yet he is sending a Shepherd to deliver us right smack in the middle of

the fight.

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

There is so much hope for us

God wants to spread a feast of provision before us in the very presence of our enemies.

While the pressure and the darkness close in, while our giants stand and taunt us, Jesus wants to show us that he can provide everything we need to survive and successfully navigate the journey through the darkest valley.

we all deal with real pain. Pain is universal. Every person feels pain. Pain is pain is pain. And pain is always valid to the person feeling the pain. Our hearts are genuinely broken, and in our pain we often don’t respond all too well to logic and we become subject to the lies of the Enemy sitting in our midst.

God is good.

God has everything unde...

“in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called ...

God redeems all things, and one day our pain wil...

One day all injustice will turn to justice. One day all sorrow will be ...

God is on our side, walking through the valley with us.

everything good is found in biblical logic.

stop the negative news. Stop the Devil’s talking. Stop the pain of the immediacy, and take a seat at God’s great table. We’ll sit down and be still, and just let the breath of our heavenly Father breathe with us. He’s the one who invites us to come to him whenever we are weary and heavy-laden. He’s the one who gives us rest

Don’t give the Enemy a seat at your table.

If the Enemy is at your table, then you think you’re not going to make it.

You are not going to die in this barren, defeated place. And if you think you are, then I encourage you—don’t give the Devil a seat at your table.

2. If the Enemy is at your table, then you think there’s something better at another table.