Before you read this devotional, I encourage you to open your Bible and read 1 Samuel Chapter 17.         I hope you read this chapter so you can get the fullness of what I am about to share with you; trust me it is worth it! The Word of God can do more in a moment than any devotional I could write for you.

So, the Israelites were at war with the Philistines who were a strong army. These people were big and intimidating, they were called giants they were so big!  David was a shepherd and his brothers were at the camp ground as part of the Israelite army. David’s father asked him to take some food and provisions to the camp and then return and update him on how his brothers were doing. When David arrived to the camp he found them at a standstill as there was a Philistine giant named Goliath who had been taunting them for forty days begging them to send someone to fight him.  If you read the description in the word about Goliath you can see this was no small man with small armor, he was a giant in every sense of the word. David, an adolescent, arrives on the scene and says: “who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” This made his brothers very angry and they told him to go back to the “few sheep” he was to attend to. Basically they felt like who was this child to tell them anything about fighting this giant! How dare he come up like anything could be done about this situation! Who did he think he was!

Well you see, that’s just it! The Israelite army had lost sight of who they were. They were God’s chosen people. They belonged to the God who conquered the Egyptian army and others before.  Perspective is a very powerful thing! If you look at yourself and you see that you are not bigger or more powerful than your giant, then you have already taken your spot as the loser in the battle. That’s just not the case! Let’s see what David did that the others didn’t.

Verse 26: “The army of the living God” – David recognized to whom he belonged. It wasn’t just the Israelite army, it was Gods army!

Verse 34-37 – David remembered his testimony, how the Lord had helped him before. He knew that God was faithful then, and would be faithful now.

Verse 38-39- David knew he had to be himself, just as God created him. By trying to dress and be like Saul, he would not have victory or be able to fight like he knew. He didn’t have to become or dress like all the rest of the Israelite army… after all, they had that gear the whole time and none of them believed it would save them.

Verse 47- He recognized that the battle was not His but the Lords! It was never David that would defeat the giant; he knew it would be the Lord. His confidence was not in himself, but God.

Verse 48 “David ran quickly” – I think there is a lot being said in these three small words. We see in the previous verses the Israelites had been taunted by this Philistine for forty days! David ran quickly! Sometimes we spend far too much time staring at our giants and we let fear and intimidation get the best of us. Just like the Israelites did. They spent forty days wallowing in their emanate defeat, when all David did was recognize that he belonged to God and who was the Philistine to conquer a child of God?

After Goliath was defeated the King wondered who that kid was that defeated him. None knew they had to go find out. You see, David was a nobody a mere Sheppard boy to everyone else, but David knew who he was, he was a child of God! This story is a great example of perspective. The Israelites had the perspective that they were no match for a giant, but this adolescent boy had the perspective that he was a child of God, and who dare come against a child of God and win? The Israelites lost sight of to whom they belonged. They tried to fight a battle on their own, when in reality the battle was the Lords.

We all have things that seem like giants in our life. Maybe things we have struggled with all our lives or maybe new situations that have come up. But the question is: what perspective are you going to take? We are not children of God that we should be victims and defeated. If we try to fight these battles forgetting that the battle is not ours but the Lords, we will surely set ourselves up for failure. Give your giant to the Lord, and know to whom you belong! You are a child of God! What shall you fear? Meditate on these verses and ask God to show you where your perspective needs some adjusting. You are the Child of the most high, you have nothing that cannot be healed or overcome!

Blessings,

Pastor Ginny

James 1:1-2. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

We experienced a very powerful service this past Sunday at TGPA. If you weren’t with us, I encourage you to listen to the podcast of Pastor Ginny’s sermon about the Holy Spirit. The presence of God was there and many of us were compelled to invite the Holy Spirit into fill our lives in a new and powerful way. 

Imagine living every aspect of everyday life on God’s terms. Seeing the world as God sees it, loving others the way God loves them, fulfilling the plans that God has specifically for your life. For those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, this is our new reality. We can live on God’s terms. 

What does that mean for you? If God were dropped into your body, what would He do with your day? With your job? With your social connections? With your free time? With your finances? With your talent? Consider this, and then realize that’s exactly what has happened. The very Spirit and life of God lives inside you and me and we are meant to live on His terms.

What will that look like for you today?

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6 ESV)

God wants to finish in us what He started when Christ entered our life. For me it was at a very young age. I’m sure God knew the project He was undertaking back then and all the work that needed to be done. As I look back on that beginning over 40 years ago I’m amazed at what He has done. The transformation is nothing short of miraculous! It took the power of God and help from a lot of other Christians to continue that good work.

There were many times however over those years I was resistant to His working. There were periods in my life when He was working on me rather than in me. I was wishing to be used by God rather than working on the changes He desired for me. I wanted transformation into the likeness of Christ without trials. In other words I wanted God’s work in me to be easy. I wanted to be used by God without pursuing Him. I wanted to form Christ in others without being transformed myself. I’m sure you can relate. It took me some time until I realized that God is working in us not just for us but, for the sake of others as well. God is working in us to mold us to be a tool to craft others more into the likeness of Christ.

So how is God working in you now? Are you resisting change or persisting through the pain to be changed? Are you simply praying for growth or pursuing it? Transformation in the image of Christ is God’s ultimate goal. Trust Him as He does His good work and see the end result. Let God’s grace work in you and on you so that you too can help others bring the good work Christ started in them closer to completion.

When it comes to spiritual maturity, we can’t simply take for granted that we’re going to grow without nurturing our spiritual life. But, how?

We know we’re growing spiritually when we become increasingly aware of our sinfulness and weakness. As I read biographies of godly saints, it’s clear that they don’t “get better” with age and spiritual maturity. Instead, they become ever more sensitive to their dependence upon the Lord. Moreover, progress is apparent when we respond to sin with quick repentance. Failure to deal with sin is rebellion against God. Growing believers turn away from wrongdoing and embrace righteousness. As we live with the good results of dependence and repentance, our desire to obey intensifies, and the attraction of sin lessens.

Growth is also marked by an increase in faith which is often developed through hardship as we learn to trust God instead of ourselves. Throughout Scripture we see that it was adversity that created spiritual giants. Just think about Paul, David, Daniel and Job. The more time, and attention we give to our relationship with God the more it will continue to grow. Find a time to read His word, turn on worship music in the car instead of something else, and talk to him every day. Take care of your spiritual rose bushes, and they will bloom bright and give off a beautiful aroma to others.

As I start to prepare for our new study of Joyce Meyer’s “Battlefield of the Mind” which begins in Sunday school on August 2, 2015, I found myself asking “I wonder how many words a person thinks a day?” So I started looking in to this question and the results I found are pretty incredible.  The results varied quite a bit depending on the researcher but on the low side I read the average person thinks around 120 words per minute. That is 7,200 words per hour! Now multiply that by how many hours you are awake each day and the number is staggering!  Now ask yourself: How many of those thousands of words that travel through your mind each day are positive and how many are negative?

It is no wonder the enemy fights us so hard in our minds! Each word through our mind is like a weapon and it is either pointed at the enemy’s camp, or our own. Imagine ten minutes of negative thinking is 1,200 negative arrows fired right at your spirit.  Did you know you can have control over your thoughts and change negative thinking patterns? It is true! The Word of God even tells us so.  2 Corinthians 10:5 says “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.  We have Power over our minds and our mouths! Words are a powerful tool that can be used for the building up or tearing down and this is not just the words that come out of your mouth, this includes the ones that stay in your thoughts.

When we begin to think negative thoughts we must take action and take those negative thoughts captive and replace them with positive and truthful thoughts.  Most battles can be won or lost in your mind. Here are some practical ways to combat negative thinking. For more information and to continue the study on this, please join us in Sunday school when we kick off this study in August.

1. Replace negative thoughts with the truth of God’s Word. Get his Word into your mind and heart so when the enemy comes at you with a lie like “there is no help for you and you should be condemned / ashamed.” You can combat it with “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1

2. Replace negative thoughts with words of Praise and Thanksgiving for the good things you have in your life. Example: You feel negative about your Job and what you do, replace those negative words with thankfulness for Gods provision with a job and for leading you to the right one in the right time.

3. Worship. Turn on some music or sing aloud and get your focus off of the problem and on to the problem solver!