Stones, slings and … a yard sale?

The last few pieces I posted here dealt with “lions and bears” and “Goliath.” As I read the passage (1 Samuel 17) for our women’s Bible study, I saw a metaphor for realities in our own lives.

I likened lions and bears to enemies that attack us personally: illness, disease, losses of all kinds–from jobs to death of loved ones–and more. Whatever can come into our lives and turn them upside down and inside out, I consider a lion or bear type of enemy.

We are all subject to lions and bears. In my book, Brokenness to Beauty[1], I deal with these enemies and share how we can successfully fight them, becoming stronger and better for having gone through the attack. Like David, we can learn to wield our weapons—prayer and praise and the Word of God—gaining spiritual strength, growing in faith and in the knowledge of God. We can bring glory to the Lord by our lives as we go through our personal struggles.

But who or what is Goliath? The more I read the 1 Samuel 17 passage, the more clear it became to me that Goliath is anything that directly attacks and defies the Living God on a larger scale, not just a personal one. I imagined the evils in this world as Goliath, evils that challenge us, God’s people, to stand and fight in and for his Name.

Fighting Goliath definitely will take us out of our comfort zone. It certainly challenged Saul and his entire army. Goliath’s challenge scared them spitless. So they didn’t answer it. They didn’t stand up to Goliath; they quaked in their sandals and ran backwards.

There are Goliath’s in our world to fight and based on Jesus’ words, he expects us to fight them (John 14:12-17).

A small group of women here in Bakersfield are taking up the challenge. They are one example of standing up to Goliath in the name of the Lord of Hosts. Since I am part of that group, I’ll speak of them as “we.”

We have taken up a big challenge to fight against poverty, abuse and neglect of  girls and women, ignorance, slavery of all kinds including sex slavery, illiteracy, and oppression. We are doing this on behalf of women in India whom we have not met, yet because other believers are on the front lines of this war, and we have heard the challenge, we have declared we would join the fight. The Bakersfield SIS Advocacy Group are the supply troops, if you will.

So we prayed about our next plan. And we had a yard sale.

The mighty weapon of a yard sale!

Well, no. Our weapon is prayer. And hard work. The yard sale is a strategy.

And God blessed it.

We in turn blessed 11 women in India to become part of a Transformation Group where they will learn skills, work as a group, gain confidence and the ability to become self-sufficient, be given a voice to stand up for themselves… and learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now that’s life transforming.

We only have 151 more women to bless at $10 a month for one year.[2] Ten dollars a month. Two cups of Starbucks coffee. For one year. Imagine that.

We few, we band of sisters in the Bakersfield She Is Safe Advocacy Group,[3] are learning to stand and fight Goliath–with prayer, hard work, and yard sales and bring glory to the Name of the Lord of Hosts.

Do you hear the challenge? Want to join us?

 

 

[1] Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life is almost out! Expect it early next year! More on that later.

[2] Want to join us? Contact me at jacquelinegwallace@gmail for info on how to bless one or more Indian women … for life and eternity.

[3] Learn more about She Is Safe and their opportunity to fight Goliath through an Advocacy Group at SheIsSafe.org