Fighting my Goliath's!

We had a great small group last night. We've begun a new study - the Liquid Series - which is a great resource if you're looking for something for your small groups.
The first one we did was on David & Goliath (1 Samuel 17). I think when you grow up as a Christian, you get to know these stories pretty well but I think sometimes, God just gives you an "a-ha" moment ya know?

Last night, as we watched the dvd, I got to thinking about the Goliath's we create. Things that are so tiny in reality, but we allow them to get huge. Things like finance, relationship dramas, loneliness, self-doubt... things that can be fixed, if we would only have David's faith in our God who is bigger than all of these things.

I'm not someone who likes to over-spiritualize things, but my goodness our team has been dealing with some pretty hard core spiritual attack lately. I'm not talking demons jumping out at us or anything, more subtle stuff such as disunity, fear, and self-doubt. All in the lead up to the first birthday of our church at Torquay. Some of our baby-Christians (that's people who have just become Christians and are learning about the whole church thing still) have been considering becoming official members of our church - what a beautiful idea and celebration! But of course, those of you who have planted churches, or are evangelists will know - when things are going well, that's when suddenly cracks appear and the foundations are tested.

So we've got a few Goliath's to face. And the going is getting pretty tough at the moment.

Personally, I've got some self-doubt Goliath's to face (you know, "what am I doing, I'm not good at this, I can't do this, how could God really use me, I'm rubbish" sort of thing) and the more I try to fight it on my own, the more the self-doubt creeps in.

But something struck me last night - the thing about David was that he never doubted that God was bigger than Goliath. People were scared of Goliath's size, so they wouldn't even try to fight him - but David didn't see his size, David saw an opportunity for God to win the battle, and show people His power!

On his own, David couldn't have beaten Goliath, but he didn't fight him on his own, he fought him with God's power.

So last night, when I was lying there convinced that I couldn't do this, that I wasn't good enough, that I wasn't smart enough, or whatever else crept in I just kept saying "I can't, but God can" and repeating 1 Samuel 17:47


"And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

The battle is the Lord's, and He will fight it. I just need to be faithful to God, and TRUST in Him and HIS power.

For a bit of a laugh, I've included a great clip that Josh Griffin from Saddleback showed us at the PDYM conference and the National Youth Ministry Convention... love it, makes me laugh!

Peace to you all!