Parenting: Taking on Giants and Winning - Part II

Back in the day (and probably still today in some classrooms in America), we were required to read the classic story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet. If you didn't read that story, then I'm pretty sure you've heard Charlie Daniel's version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," or if you're really an academic sort, you read "Mephistopheles" by Faust. What all three have in common is a character who sells his soul to the devil to gain victory over some challenge in his life. He carries on life pretty much as normal, having gotten what he wanted from the bargain, until the day of reckoning - he has to give the devil his due. Of course, in each instance, the main character doesn't want to give over his soul to the devil and works to outsmart him and wins. In real life, things don't work out that way. We never develop a winning strategy by bargaining with the devil, we never outsmart him, and we certainly don't beat him at his game in our own power. What makes for good and entertaining literature and song lyrics, doesn't play well in real life.

Very often the giants that confront us make us much like the the fictional characters in the stories and song. We want a quick and decisive end to those challenges. We find all kinds of ways to deal with them, but until we allow God to defeat them, we are held captive. When young David took down the Philistine giant Goliath, he did it with the "army of God" cowering behind him. For 40 days these trained soldiers ran for fear as Goliath taunted them; they had no faith that they could defeat this giant and felt certain a shepherd boy with a sling and five stones was sure to be squashed (I Samuel 17). 

Goliath bargained with the Israelites daily: "...pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you'll all become our slaves and serve us" (I Samuel 17:8-9). Interestingly, even though the Israelites hadn't taken Goliath up on his bargain by sending one man to fight him, they had already become the slaves of the Philistines. They allowed their fear to control them and stop them from confronting their enemies in the name and power of their God and winning a decisive victory.

When we choose to make "bargains" with our giants rather than confront and defeat them in God's strength, we become their slaves. We may for a time live a life that seems free from their terror, but a day of reckoning - pay day - always comes. The Israelite army had managed not to engage in battle with Goliath by simply running from his daily taunting. They were living life, just not a life of freedom from fear and oppression from the Philistines. In effect, they had struck a bargain with "the devil" rather than putting a decisive end to the "giant in their lives."

Goliath could have been defeated a lot sooner had the Israelites chosen to remember who their God is. In Psalm 20, David says: "...Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm." The King James version says, "...we will remember the name of the Lord our God." When we choose to remember who our God is and what He has done in our lives, we don't have to live in the shadow of the giants. We don't have to strike bargains with them that require a payment that leaves us enslaved. John 8:36 declares, "So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through." We don't have to live as a slave to the giants. Our God created us to live in freedom - no fear. Galatians 5:1 reminds us: "Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you." No giant is so great that it can take us captive unless we allow it. God's promises are affirmed through us (II Corinthians 1:20) for His glory; therefore, we do not have to live in slavery to the giants.

We are well-equipped to battle the giants and defeat them. We can be delivered from the enslaving conditions of bargains that we have made with them to hold them at bay. We have the Word of God as our sword, and we can wield it with great strength when we come in his name and acknowledge that the battle is the Lord's (I Samuel 17:45-47). This is when giants are defeated!


Lord, the battle is yours, not mine. The victory is already won. Help me remember this and boldly confront the giants in my life knowing that they are already defeated because You said so! Thank you, Heavenly Father.

Words to Remember When Confronting Giants:
Isaiah 43:5 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you...."
Isaiah 35:4 "Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come ... and save you."
Psalm 27:1 "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
Romans 8:37 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

Parenting - Taking on the Giants and Winning - Part I

I absolutely hate snakes! When I was a little girl, I used to play in the dirt under a huge oak tree in my grandmother's front yard. One day, as I was digging around minding my own business, an evil looking snake fell coiled from that tree. I ran screaming in the house for my grandmother to come and save me! I can still see her, undaunted, walking out to that snake and putting a quick end to his menace with a garden hoe. Grandma the Snake Slayer! I never doubted for a moment that my grandmother could save the day!

The innocent faith of children in the "big people" in their lives to save them from their fears is exactly the kind of faith we are to have in our Father in Heaven. In I Samuel 17:1-58, we read the story of the Israelites cowering in fear of the Philistine giant, Goliath. Every day he would taunt them; every day they would run and hide in fear. All that changed on the day that a young shepherd boy showed up with supplies for the army and his brothers. David heard all the talk of the giant and wondered why the soldiers were so fearful. After all, they were the army of the living God (I Samuel 17:26). It's here that David demonstrates that childlike faith in his Father. David boldly professed that he would fight the giant and win, not in his own strength but in the strength of the Lord: "God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear will deliver me from this Philistine" (I Samuel 17:37).

The soldiers and the King found it hard to believe that one so young and inexperienced in battle would be able to defeat the giant that had stymied them for forty days. David wasn't anything special to look at; he was a kid watching over his father's sheep and running errands. Certainly, he wasn't equipped to pull off a major military coup, but God had other plans. You see, God often uses the small things in life, those things that we overlook or discount, to defeat the giants in our lives. In I Corinthians 1:27b, Paul says, "...God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."

Whatever the giants are that we face, we must come to God with unwavering childlike faith that He will defeat them. We truly are no match for those giants in our own strength, but God provides all we need to be victorious. Paul tells us in II Corinthians 12:9: "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." Our logic and pragmatism can defeat us; trusting God to provide, often in ways that seem illogical and improbable, is the key to victory. Remember, God can bring down giants with a slingshot and a stone!


Lord, the giants in our lives loom large. Some days they send us running for the nearest hiding place. Please help us to stand our ground and trust You to defeat those things that come to bring us down. Help us to never question your ways but to believe that You are working all for our good and doing so through your perfect plan. Thank you that we are victorious when we face life with your power and strength.