December 2021 - Jacqueline G Wallace.com

December 31, 2021December 30, 2021

Fit to Fight Goliath

You don’t just jump into spiritual conflict unprepared. It could be deadly. Preparation and training are necessary.

We’ve been discussing testing of our faith. It comes to all believers in Jesus Christ, but I fear too often we don’t recognize it for what it is. When difficult times come to us—health issues, disease and death, financial crises, and similar trials of life—we often have a knee-jerk response of, “God, what’s going on? Why is this happening to me?” Such trials are not to be taken lightly or downplayed. The suffering is very real. The reality is, God can use these things common to us all to refine our faith and produce good results in us.

In my last post, these trials are what I likened to David’s lions and bears, which he subdued during his everyday shepherd’s life. This was David’s training ground for spiritual attacks, for fighting Goliath. And our health problems, financial troubles, and other challenges in life are our training ground for spiritual attacks, for fighting Goliath on the battlefield of faith in Christ.

In my last blog post, I re-posted the first of two blog posts about this topic. Here is the second.

Goliaths and Greater Things

David was faithful in his everyday life as a shepherd, sometimes at great personal risk fighting lions and bears. It was in his everyday life that he grew strong wielding the weapons of his trade—the staff and sling and stones—and he grew strong in faith in God. He knew God and could confidently say, “the LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear …”

We too face our lions and bears, those trials and difficulties that come into our everyday lives, threatening us in a myriad of ways. These are the enemies that come to destroy us.

Are we being faithful to fight them with the weapons given us—prayer and praise and the Word of God? Are we becoming adept in their use and growing in strength and trust in God? Can we say as David did, “the LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear …”

It is only in our everyday lives as we faithfully face enemies that would destroy us—our lions and bears—that we learn to fight, becoming skilled and strong, where we learn to know and trust the LORD, bringing him glory as we fight our personal enemies. This, too, is where we learn to recognize another kind of enemy: Goliath.

Goliath wasn’t David’s personal enemy, and he isn’t ours. Goliath is a different enemy. He defies the LORD of Hosts, the Lord Almighty.

Goliath is anything that is contrary to the person and purposes of God, and he must be fought with weapons that have “divine power to demolish strongholds … and everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God …” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Prayer and praise and the Word of God. These are the powerful weapons that we become skilled at using in our everyday lives fighting our lions and bears. Their power is spiritual, not of our flesh or the world, but of God’s Spirit who lives in us.

When Jesus was on earth, he fought many Goliaths. When he was about to leave and return to his Father in heaven he told his disciples, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. … And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. … for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:12-17, NIV, emphasis added).

Jesus expected us to fight Goliaths. Else what did he mean by saying, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NIV)?

Or “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV)?

The Spirit was given for God’s purposes, the “greater works,” to be lived out in our lives. The questions we must ask ourselves are:

Do I recognize Goliath when I see him?
When I do see him, do I have the spirit of David that says, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
Do I have the chuztpah to reply to the naysayers as David did, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I … struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:34-37, NIV, emphasis added).
Do I have the jealousy for God’s Name that makes me willing to put “skin” in the game, my skin, for his Name and glory?

The greater works we are to do, that Jesus expects us to do, are waiting to be done. They are there waiting for us to step forward, as David did, in the name of the Lord Almighty, that the Father may be glorified in the Son—through us.

“David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down … and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands’” (1 Samuel 17:45-47).

Let us get stronger every day wielding the weapons of our warfare—prayer and praise and the Word of God—fighting our everyday lions and bears so that we may be strong in the Spirit, fit to recognize and fight Goliath—doing greater things—for the sake of his Name, for the glory of the Father.

Let us fear God more than men.

How have you fared with your lions and bears? Have you discerned the Goliath that you should be challenging for his Name’s sake? How is it going? Send me your questions and comments about this post at jacqueline@jacquelinegwallace.com .

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Photo: Repent by jclk8888

“Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!” and “Goliaths and Greater Things” were first posted on Living with Hope and Purpose at JacquelineGWallace.com, blog posts of October 27, 2015, and November 3, 2015, respectively.

December 17, 2021December 16, 2021

Everyday Lions and Bears

In our women’s Bible study we are investigating what the Scriptures have to say about being thankful for times of testing of our faith. If you recall, in my last post I said I had two pages of Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, that touch on the subject of tests of our faith and many speak to what our response should be. We went through some of those verses in this week’s study. Carolyn, who agreed to lead a few weeks of Bible study, contributed more pages of Scriptures, some of which were the same as I had copied out and others I did not have.

Everyday Tests for Everyone

James 1:2-4 was one most of us know: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And letendurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Another group of verses, perhaps not so well known, is from 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4: “We sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know.”

Obviously, whatever the source of the trials and afflictions, we are not to be taken by surprise nor discouraged by them. And we need to encourage one another in them. We are even to count it joy to suffer because the testing of our faith can produce wonderful outcomes in our lives, such as endurance and completeness/maturity in our spiritual lives, as well as character and hope, as Paul says in Romans 5:3-5. “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

The topic of tests of our faith reminded me of a post I published in two-parts on my blog a few years ago and I’m re-posting the first part here.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Well, maybe not tigers, but definitely lions and bears. That’s what David said, “When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.” He went on to declare, “When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it” (1 Samuel 17:34-37).

Now, I’ve seen a bear close up. Sure, it was at night and all I could see was a big round, furry looking thing lumbering swiftly away from me (thank goodness it was going in the opposite direction!), but I knew it was a bear. We saw its tracks in the snowy yard the next morning and followed the trail of garbage up the hill into our neighbor’s yard. No sheep, just garbage. Hungry bears apparently are not fussy about their meals. From the size of that behind and the paw tracks it left, I’m glad it wasn’t running toward me!

A lion and a bear. Running after it. Grabbing the sheep from its jaws and then grabbing the beast by the hair and killing it. That is an amazing feat. Done not once but twice. All in the line of duty. Just part of the ordinary life of a shepherd.

David was responsible and dependable. He could be trusted to take care of business, in this case, sheep-keeping: guarding and guiding [and defending].

David was faithful to fight and do what he had to do; he did the right thing, even at great cost to himself. He may have had the scars to prove it. He used the weapons of his profession—the sling and stones and staff—becoming adept at their use. In the process of fighting the lion and bear he grew skilled and strong. His faith in God grew as well, for David knew he didn’t do his fighting alone. “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear ….”

David was faithful in his everyday, ordinary life.

We all live ordinary lives. We all face our lions and bears, those trials and difficulties that come into our lives, perhaps threatening our livelihood or even our life. These are the enemies that come to snatch away our lives, enemies that threaten to destroy us. Are we being faithful to fight them with the weapons given us—prayer and praise and the Word of God? Are we becoming adept in their use and growing in strength, growing in our trust in God? Can we say as David did, “the LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear …”

It is only in our ordinary, everyday lives, faithfully facing the enemies that would destroy us—our lions and bears—that we learn to fight, becoming skilled and strong in spirit. Ordinary life is where we learn to trust the LORD.

What bears or lions are you facing today: Health issues, fearful job or financial challenges, death or disease of a loved one, divorce, addiction? So many beasts that would tear us apart and destroy us. Only by wielding the weapons of prayer, praise (yes, praise) and the Word of God, in the power of God’s Spirit, can we successfully defeat such enemies.

But that’s not the end of the story. Fighting lions and bears has another vastly important function in our everyday, ordinary lives. For only then will we, like David, recognize and be fit to face the giant, Goliath, who defies the Living God.

Giving Thanks for Testing

“Faith, by its very nature, must be tried.” (Oswald Chambers)

Who hasn’t heard of Oswald Chambers? One of the best devotional books ever published, in my opinion, is My Utmost for His Highest. It is a compilation of portions of messages and talks Mr. Chambers gave throughout his life, all of which were painstakingly recorded in shorthand by his wife. Many books were published from these notes based on sermons and teaching of Oswald Chambers.

And you may have heard of author Jan Karon, who delighted many readers with her stories about an Episcopalian priest and his neighbor cum wife in the fictional North Carolina town of Mitford. It is from a quote, the one above by Oswald Chambers, in the book, At Home in Mitford, that a question arises about the testing of our faith and giving thanks for it.

Grudging Gratitude?

The question asked by the main character, Father Tim, and the response by his neighbor, Cynthia, got us to thinking it would be good to follow up on it for ourselves. That question and response are:

(Father Tim) “Would you agree that we must be willing to thank God for every trial of our faith, no matter how severe, for the greater strength it produces?”

(Cynthia’s response) “I’m perfectly willing to say it, but I’m continually unable to do it.”

Exploring our thoughts about this exchange will be the topic of discussion and Bible study for the next two weeks in our women’s Bible study. I, personally, want to root out the biblical answer to the question Father Tim poses.

A Novel Idea

Some may look askance at the idea of a Bible study arising from a story of fiction, but why not? All of life presents opportunities to see the hand of God at work in our lives and of the lives of those around us. In fact, it should give us pause if we are not growing in our awareness of the presence and activity of God in our lives and those of others.

Our faith in God through Jesus Christ will be tested. This is not conjecture, it is a tried-and-true fact, attested to in Scripture (James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-7). It will come whether we are aware and ready for it or not. If we are not aware and prepared for testing and trials of our faith, we run the risk of running in a trajectory away from God and blaming him when things go awry, rather than running to our heavenly Father, who is our Refuge and Rock of safety. And only source of comfort and peace, I might add.

It will be an interesting study. So far, I have over two pages of cut and pasted Scriptures related to the topic. God has spoken. He is not silent. It is for us to listen with ears that hear and obey.