Fighting The Man In The Mirror

     The worker was spending another night in a different motel in another town.  His line of work necessitated being in different areas on a regular basis.  He often worried about the security of the motel in some of the places he stayed.  Such was the case this night.  He went to bed tired with the security issue on his mind.  Sometime during the night nature called, and he arose to go to the bathroom.  The outside light was the only light coming into the room, and, as he came around the foot of the bed, he saw a movement to his right.  He focused on the movement and saw a man standing in the bathroom doorway.  His instincts caused him to raise his fists and drop into a protective crouch, only to see the man do the same thing.  "I am in a fight to the finish," he thought.  He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that during the night the door to the bathroom had closed, and he was looking at his own image in the full-length mirror.
     Ever so often the fears we face are much like the man in the mirror.  They really are not going to be able to hurt us.  So many of our problems can be blamed directly on the man we see in the mirror.  When we see the fear as it really is and not as we imagine we have taken the first step in conquering our fear or our perceived enemy.
     Christians should take great comfort in the promise of God to never leave us nor forsake us.  His constant encouragement for us to cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us should sustain us in whatever we face.  No one ever faced a more chalangeing foe than young David in facing the giant.  It goes unnoticed, often, that David could not fail because he had already been anointed King of Israel.  Our God knows the ending much better than we know the beginning.  It is so simple- a prayer for us to pray, "not my will, but thy will, oh God."  With that being my desire, all else makes no difference.

Battling Giants

     I am sure that young David was very curious as to what the army of Israel was doing.  No doubt he did not need any encouragement from anyone when his father said to go check on his brothers.  We sometimes forget that David had already been anointed king of Israel.  But the lad was not expecting what he saw once he arrived at the camp.  The army of Israel was sitting in their tents and day after day Goliath, the giant, hurled challenge and insults at the army. 
     The first question we need to ask is, why was there a giant in the land?  He was a left-over from the time the children of Israel crossed into the promised land.  Their command was to kill all of the enemy.  Now, years later, they are still being troubled by the giant.  There was only one family of giants in the land when they sent out the spies.  They were the reason the children of Israel spent forty years wandering around in the desert.  Now the problem remains.  Young David recognized the problem and chose to do something about it himself.  His faith in God enabled him to be victorious.
     Today, many, are facing giants of a different nature in their everyday life.  The giants of fear, financial problems, temptations, etc.  Many of the problems that we face as Christians are giants that have been there for a long time.  Some of them we brought with us this side of the salvation experience.  They taunt us, they tempt us, they cause us problems in our everyday lives.  I think we can easily understand that David alone, did not defeat the giant.  The giant problems we face today are such that we by ourselves can not be victorious.   But rest assured faith in Jesus will accomplish the impossible and allow us to see the invisible.  The scripture gives us the assurance that we are not alone and He will never leave us.  David threw the rock, God did the rest.  When we trust in Jesus, victory is already on the way.