I so related to this devotional by Max Lucado that I just had to share. How frequently I run from the giant of despondency when I am again faced with another bad day. Or perhaps the giant of dependency when I go back to my meds one more time to try to ease the pain.

What giants are you struggling with? Perhaps finding their names will give you a handle on who to bring before the Lord.

by Max Lucado

Goliaths still roam our world. Debt. Disaster. Dialysis. Danger. Deceit. Disease. Depression. Super-size challenges still swagger and strut, still pilfer sleep and embezzle peace and liposuction joy. But they can’t dominate you. You know how to deal with them. You face giants by facing God first.

Focus on giants—you stumble.

Focus on God—your giants tumble.

You know what David knew, and you do what David did. You pick up five stones, and you make five decisions. Ever wonder why David took five stones into battle? Why not two or twenty? Rereading his story reveals five answers. Use your five fingers to remind you of the five stones you need to face down your Goliath. Let your thumb remind you of …

1. THE STONE OF THE PAST
Goliath jogged David’s memory. Elah was a déjà vu. While everyone else quivered, David remembered. God had given him strength to wrestle a lion and strong-arm a bear. Wouldn’t he do the same with the giant? A good memory makes heroes.

“Remember His marvelous works which He has done” (1 Chron. 16:12). Catalog God’s successes. Keep a list of his world records. Has he not walked you through high waters? Proven to be faithful? Have you not known his provision? How many nights have you gone to bed hungry? Mornings awakened in the cold? He has made roadkill out of your enemies. Write today’s worries in sand. Chisel yesterday’s victories in stone. Pick up the stone of the past. Then select …

2. THE STONE OF PRAYER
Note the valley between your thumb and finger. To pass from one to the next you must go through it. Let it remind you of David’s descent. Before going high, David went low; before ascending to fight, David descended to prepare. Don’t face your giant without first doing the same. Dedicate time to prayer. Paul, the apostle, wrote, “Prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long” (Eph. 6:18 MSG).

Prayer spawned David’s successes. His Brook Besor wisdom grew out of the moment he “strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Sam. 30:6). When Saul’s soldiers tried to capture him, David turned toward God: “You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble” (Ps. 59:16).

Invite God’s help. Pick up the stone of prayer. And don’t neglect …

3. THE STONE OF PRIORITY
Let your tallest finger remind you of your highest priority: God’s reputation. David jealously guarded it. No one was going to defame his Lord. David fought so that “all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Sam. 17:46–47).

David saw Goliath as a chance for God to show off! Did David know he would exit the battle alive? No. But he was willing to give his life for the reputation of God.

What if you saw your giant in the same manner? Rather than begrudge him, welcome him. Your cancer is God’s chance to flex his healing muscles. Your sin is God’s opportunity to showcase grace. Your struggling marriage can billboard God’s power. See your struggle as God’s canvas. On it he will paint his multicolored supremacy. Announce God’s name and then reach for …

4. THE STONE OF PASSION
David ran, not away from, but toward his giant. On one side of the battlefield, Saul and his cowardly army gulped. On the other, Goliath and his skull-splitters scoffed. In the middle, the shepherd boy ran on his spindly legs. Who bet on David? Who put money on the kid from Bethlehem? Not the Philistines. Not the Hebrews. Not David’s siblings or David’s king. But God did.

And since God did, and since David knew God did, the skinny runt became a blur of pumping knees and a swirling sling. He ran toward his giant.

Do the same!

Let your ring finger remind you to take up the stone of passion.

One more stone, and finger, remains:

5. THE STONE OF PERSISTENCE
David didn’t think one rock would do. He knew Goliath had four behemoth relatives. For all David knew, they’d come running over the hill to defend their kin. David was ready to empty the chamber if that’s what it took.

Imitate him. Never give up. One prayer might not be enough. One apology might not do it. One day or month of resolve might not suffice. You may get knocked down a time or two … but don’t quit. Keep loading the rocks. Keep swinging the sling.

David took five stones. He made five decisions. Do likewise. Past. Prayer. Priority. Passion. And persistence.

Next time Goliath wakes you up, reach for a stone. Odds are, he’ll be out of the room before you can load your sling.

From Facing Your Giants
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2005) Max Lucado

May your day be blessed.

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Dear God,

Please untie the knots that are in my mind, my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots, the can nots and the do nots that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots, may nots, and might nots that find a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots, would nots and should nots that obstruct my life.

And most of all, dear God, I ask that you remove from my mind my heart and my life all of the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back, especially the thought that I am not good enough.

Amen.

Anonymous

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My World

by Jonnie Wright

My world is very small. I have written three books, two of them Bible studies for those who live with chronic pain. But, I cannot seem to promote them to the small audience who might be interested because I myself suffer with Fibromyalgia and its cluster of syndromes. These health issues shrink my world to a few “can dos.”

A depressed, non-Christian friend calls. I can witness to her about how I hang on to the core of my life, Jesus Christ, when I am depressed. A frightened friend arrives at my door after spending the night in jail. I can fall to my knees and claim the spiritual armor of the Holy Spirit that she may stand and see the deliverance the Lord will give her. I open an email from a Christian celebrity who begs for help because she is in a health crisis. I can email back a prayer of power using God’s own promises from Scripture. These things I can do.

Perhaps my world is not so very small. I serve a mighty God whose ways are not my own. If He is enough, then so am I.

Jesus is The Silver Bullet Book One in the Series: God’s Rx for Chronic Pain

Changes: Managing Chronic Pain Book Two in the Series: God’s Rx for Chronic Pain

Lord, What do I do with Sammy? Workbook for Christian Teachers

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Dealing with Difficult Relatives

by Max Lucado

Does Jesus have anything to say about dealing with difficult relatives? Is there an example of Jesus bringing peace to a painful family? Yes, there is.

His own.

It may surprise you to know that Jesus had a difficult family. If your family doesn’t appreciate you, take heart, neither did Jesus’.

“His family … went to get him because they thought he was out of his mind” (Mark 3:21).

Jesus’ siblings thought their brother was a lunatic. They weren’t proud—they were embarrassed!

It’s worth noting that he didn’t try to control his family’s behavior, nor did he let their behavior control his. He didn’t demand that they agree with him. He didn’t sulk when they insulted him. He didn’t make it his mission to try to please them.

Each of us has a fantasy that our family will be like the Waltons, an expectation that our dearest friends will be our next of kin. Jesus didn’t have that expectation. Look how he defined his family: “My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants” (Mark 3:35).

When Jesus’ brothers didn’t share his convictions, he didn’t try to force them. He recognized that his spiritual family could provide what his physical family didn’t. If Jesus himself couldn’t force his family to share his convictions, what makes you think you can force yours?

Having your family’s approval is desirable but not necessary for happiness and not always possible. Jesus did not let the difficult dynamic of his family overshadow his call from God. And because he didn’t, this chapter has a happy ending.

What happened to Jesus’ family?

Mine with me a golden nugget hidden in a vein of the Book of Acts. “Then [the disciples] went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.… They all continued praying together with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus’ brothers” (Acts 1:12, 14, emphasis added).

What a change! The ones who mocked him now worship him. The ones who pitied him now pray for him. What if Jesus had disowned them? Or worse still, what if he’d suffocated his family with his demand for change?

He didn’t. He instead gave them space, time, and grace. And because he did, they changed. How much did they change? One brother became an apostle (Gal. 1:19) and others became missionaries (1 Cor. 9:5).

So don’t lose heart. God still changes families.

From He Still Moves Stones
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1999) Max Lucado

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I have discovered this wonderful Advent calendar with a devotional for each day in Dec. Dec. 1st is started for you below. I love the joy of this site and encourage you to visit it every day throughout this meaningful time of the year.

The Tale of Three Trees
A traditional folk tale, retold by Angela Elwell Hunt

Once upon a mountain top, three little trees stood and dreamed of what they wanted to become when they grew up.

The first little tree looked up at the stars twinkling like diamonds above him. “I want to hold treasure,” he said. “I want to be covered with gold and filled with precious stones. I will be the most beautiful treasure chest in the world!”

The second little tree looked out at the small stream trickling by on its way to the ocean. “I want to be a strong sailing ship,” he said. “I want to travel mighty waters and carry powerful kings. I will be the strongest ship in the world!”

The third little tree looked down into the valley below where busy men and busy women worked in a busy town. “I don’t want to leave this mountain top at all,” she said. “I want to grow so tall that when people stop to took at me they will raise their eyes to heaven and think of God. I will be the tallest tree in the world!”

There’s more and it’s wonderful…

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Frequently, we who suffer chronic pain cannot “do” a ministry for the church, especially when we can barely do for ourselves. I liked this poem because it opens one’s mind to the vastness of ministry. Ministry is not a job, it is a “being.” 

Ministry Is….

Listening, when you’d rather fix the problem.
Searching for the joy, when it’s easier to say “it’s not fair.”
Helping, when you feel like you’re the one that needs the help.
Telling God, “use me,” when you’d rather ask to be rescued.
Encouraging, even when you don’t understand God’s reasoning.
Hugging when it feels awkward.
Saying, “let’s pray right now,” instead of “I’ll pray for you.”
Serving, when you doubt you have anything left to give.
Comforting, by being the flicker of light in others’ dark caverns.

[author unknown]

“Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

find more good stuff at www.restministries.org

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It doesn’t take a person long to realize that bad things are happening to good people. The economy’s downward plunge has affected many Christians as well as non-Christians. How can that be when we are committed to living godly lives and following Scriptural principles?

The answer, of course, is in God’s Word, the Bible:

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure.

4 And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation.

 5 And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Romans 5:3-5 (NLT)

Our suffering is not meaningless. And because of this very truth, we Christians have hope. Maybe not hope in an improved economy, or a stimulus package, or a new retirement program, but hope in an unchanging, and therefore trustworthy, God. He has a plan for us, no matter what the condition of our pocketbook, or the deterioration of the rest of the world.

So should we be suffering in our circumstances? What’s the point of the lesson if we do not? We are not measured by our emotions or our feelings; we are not required to hold our heads high and appear undaunted; we are not called to declare Scripture in the hope that we sound as if we’re hanging in there.

Suffering is suffering. It’s a part of our walk. We are not “lesser” Christians because we are hurting, be it physical, emotional, or financial. Our suffering makes us stronger Christians! And this will become apparent once we’ve lived through our current situation.

Our joy, therefore, is found in spite of, not because of, what our circumstances looks like. Our hope is faith-based not situation-based. Prayer, church, and Scripture are our fuel. Jesus is our cornerstone. Be not downcast, oh saints of God. He has a plan for each of us, and we’re in the middle of it now… So hang on for the ride!

5 Why am I discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and 6 my God! Psalms 42:5-6 (NLT)

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