Facing The Giants

In the 2006 film, Facing The Giants, a coach who never won a game in six years on the job helplessly watched his best player transfer to another school and then learns a group of fathers were conspiring to have him fired.  Combined with pressures from home, he felt overwhelmed and gave up on hope and faith until an unexpected challenge caused him to find purpose bigger than just victories.  Daring to trust God to do the impossible, Coach Taylor and the Eagles discover how faith plays out on the field and off.

When the young shepherd boy faced the giant Goliath, who had paralyzed the Israelites with fear, he did not tremble, instead "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'" (1 Sam 17:45-46).

When the Israelite spies came back from scoping out the Promised Land, 10 of the 12 said, "We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them" (Num 13:33).  But 2 of the 12, Joshua and Caleb, believing in God's power and promise, reported, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it" (Num 13:30).

The point I am coming to is that facing the giants (those things too big for us to handle alone) is not what determines success or failure.  Rather, it is in where we focus in that moment.  Coach Grant had been focusing on his ability to prepare his team the heretofore juggernaut teams.  The 10 spies sized themselves up against the behemoth Nephilim warriors.  But David, Joshua and Caleb, and later, Coach Taylor, sized up the giants against the power and promise of God.

The difference in placing your focus on self or on God is that, when it comes to facing giants, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God" (Mk 10:27).  The fact that you personally lack the power to face a giant is irrelevant when you walk with God.  It is as the Lord spoke to Joshua the former spy and now leader of Israel, "Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you" (Josh 7:23).

It is not the giants you face along the path, it is the path along which you walk.  Are you seeking the kingdom of God, focused on his power and will; or are you self-seeking, focused on your own power and desires?  When facing the giants, where do you focus?  Jus' Ask'n.