Living as Christians in this world means facing giants. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world full of danger, hurt, and pain. There is great brokenness all around us. We live on a battlefield, and it is easy to look up and only see corpses and the enemy forces gathering in whatever form they appear to you. Maybe it’s the daily stress and chaos of a young family with lots of little ones. Maybe it’s stress at work with an oppressive boss, or maybe you don’t have a job and you’re wondering how you will pay the bills. Maybe it’s friends, relationships, or an antagonistic spouse or rebellious children. And you look up and only see the giants closing in for the kill. You are sure that everything is going to fall apart at any minute. Victory is impossible.
But looking at the giants in your life and allowing fear and worry to well up inside you is the surest way to secure defeat. You are called to faith. You are called to trust in the Lord Jesus who has gone before you in the battle. This means looking to Jesus. And this is not just a pious saying. Faith means saying that whatever giants are standing in front of you, none of them are too big for Jesus and therefore none of them are too big for you. And you may only have a tiny sling and a few little pebbles, but faith looks up and sees that the giants are too big to miss.
The gospel is this: God is determined to be God for you. God has claimed you, God has washed you, God has come for you in Jesus. And He holds you firmly in His hand, and He will not let you go. There is nothing that can tear you away from Him.
We have this truth in earthen vessels. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying around in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body… For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:7-10, 15).
So do not fear the giants. If God is with us who can be against us?
Anonymous says
Thank you for your beautiful post. We are learning to see with our eyes shut–remembering that the world to come is the true reality (to use Blaise Pascal's thoughts).