Vanquishing Goliaths
Defeating Opposition--Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado: Book Review
Goliath (10.5 feet tall), stood throwing verbal threats and taunts against the Israelites. Whether divinely ordained or coincidental, sheperd boy David leaves his flock to bring food to his brothers at the front lines. Also, he's brought a slingshot and a collection of five stones.
Israel Under Attack
David was a crack slingshot shooter as Goliath was soon to fatally discover much to the dismay of the Philistine army. When Goliath sees that David is going to accept his challenge he holds his sides in uproarious laughter--maybe not. Goliath certainly wasn't laughing when David severed this giant's head from his body.
How Goliath was Defeated
Unlike the rest of the Israelite army, David came fully believing that God would fight and win the battle. David's focus was squarely upon the power of God, not upon himself, and not upon the might of Goliath:
The Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands, David shouts.
The rest is history. David placed his stone in the slingshot and let it fly. Bullseye! Goliath took the stone to his head, and this giant came tumbling down.
David's Lessons
David saw beyond Goliath. Though he heard the taunts and verbal assaults, his focus remained squarely upon the abiilty of God to win the victory.
Is there a Goliath leering, jeering, taunting you? Do you hear his voice every night and day, relentlessly in pursuit? Is your strength and energy sapped by running/hiding from, enduring his opposition?
Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado
Author and Senior Minister for the Oak Hills Church, San Antonio, Texas, Mr. Lucado insightfully reflects upon David's techiniques for winning life's battles in this book. He also focuses upon David's loss of vision. David's life, liked scraped knees, hits the lows. Sometimes, unlike the physical Goliath, through his own poor decision making, David creates other Goliaths just as formiddable as the defeated Philistine.
Does David always truimph? Usually. However, there are consequences for poor decisions, and David does not escape them, yet, with faith and focus he is able to live, his spirit joyful, not broken.
Mr. Lucado writes tenderly and humorously as he scrutinizes several areas of David's defeats and victories. Though David lived a few thousand years ago, his humanity was not unlike our own. Adultery? David engaged in it. Homicide? David had Urriah the Hitite murdered so he could marry Urriah's wife, Bathsheba. Incest? David's son Amnon raped Tamar his sister, and Absalom, another of David's sons sought revenge by trying to usurp the throne from his father.
Well worth the read, this book not only addresses the historical aspects of the Old Testament David, but the relevance to defeating our own giants in the 21st century, along with a reflective study guide.
Source
Max Lucado, Facing Your Giants, W Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2006.
