Facing Giants

There has been so much going on this past month with losing Christie Jacks, moves to new cities, building and buying new houses, scary car wrecks, besties getting married, babies coming into the world, parents overcoming cancer and dealing with cancer, trying to get new jobs and transitions in marriages, friendships etc. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around everything all the time and to not feel overwhelmed.  This gave me some encouragement and I hope it will for y’all too. 

“Maybe God allows giants in our lives so that we can be filled with whatever it’s going to take to defeat them. When little David faced and defeated the giant Goliath, he was filled with courage and total confidence in the power of his God- and it was those things that enabled him to be a mighty leader for the kingdom. As weird as it is to say- and as hard as it is to swallow- maybe those giants are in our lives for a reason. I’m not saying that God wants us to hurt or that He delights in watching us cry with searing confused hearts. But rather, that God wants to replace those hurts and that confusion with something new. Instead of taking away our insecurity, He wants us to be filled with an unshakable confidence of who we are because of whose we are. Instead of just taking away our pain, He wants to replace it with a much deeper healing- more than a Band-Aid or a Hoover could ever hope to accomplish.

Today, I’m praying for tender hearts and for the giants and for the storms- and praying that God will replace pain with healing, brokenness with wholeness and despair with pure, sweet joy. Let this scripture soothe your soul. Let God’s Word soak into your heart- reminding you of who He is, and what He’s doing in even your messiest circumstances. Look for the things He’s replacing- and what He’s replacing them with.

Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, 
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
 They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

(full post here: http://stephanielouisemay.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/facing-giants/)