How You Can Defeat the Giant of FearSample

God is Your Champion

In today’s reading from the book of Acts, we read about the apostle Paul. He was truly one of the giants of faith. As you read through Acts and Paul’s letters that make up a great portion of the New Testament, it’s easy to get the erroneous idea that Paul was fearless.

But he wasn’t. Today’s reading shows us that Paul got scared – and it’s understandable. He was facing strong opposition on a regular basis. Many people wanted him dead! So, God came to him and said, “Paul, don’t be afraid any longer. I am with you.”

That is God’s answer to us when we are afraid. “I’m with you.”

In yesterday’s reading, I talked about the power of faith. Faith knows that God is always protecting you.

Saph, the giant in 2 Samuel, was killed by a man named Sibbecai.

Sibbecai is an interesting name; it literally means to interweave. It is a picture of trees that surround a prairie that interlock their roots and protect the prairie.

God is your Sibbecai. He is my Sibbecai. He is the one that surrounds you. He is the one who protects you. He is the one who enables you to kill the giant.

David knew that God was with him. He knew that God was his strength. He knew that God was his protection. And David went through a lot of hard times in life.

One particularly difficult time in David’s life was when his own son, Absalom, turned against him. He stole the kingdom away from David and then tried to kill David – his own father!

David had to hightail it out of the palace because Absalom was coming, and he had turned the hearts of the people of Israel against David. David now was on the run. People were mocking David. People were making fun of David.

It’s from that place of fear that David penned Psalm 3. In the midst of seemingly hopeless circumstances, David knew God would protect him. He did not lose his trust and confidence in God.

There’s an important lesson in this story I don’t want you to miss.

Sometimes God’s definition of protection and our definition of protection are different.

God’s protection doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen to you. Bad things happened to David. And bad things certainly happened to Paul. Many of his letters were written from the shackles of prison.

Bad things will happen to you, too. No one is immune to trials and tragedies. You can be the most radiant, dynamic Christian in all the world and still get cancer. But in the midst of the cancer, you can know that God is still in control and still protecting you.

Any time God lets down the hedge, as he did in the book of Job, he does so for a reason. He has a purpose in the trials of life.

I still remember what Bill Bright said when he got a terrible lung disease that eventually took his life. He said (paraphrase), “I know that God has given me this sickness because he wants to use me to show to the world how a Christian is to die.”

Bill Bright, in my estimation, was one of the greatest Christians who ever lived. He knew that God protected him.

Where is Bill Bright today? He is breathing celestial air. He is up in glory with his Lord, happy, healthy, and whole.

You can trust God. He is a good God. When the fearful things come, when Saph, the giant of fear, comes into your life and looks to snatch away and steal your peace, your joy, your contentment, your potential, remember the words in today’s passage from the book of Jeremiah.

God is your dread champion.

He is with you if you are a believer in Jesus. He is bigger than any giant. He has muscles bulging. He has his sword glistening in the sunlight. He is the dread champion … and no one can whip him.

You don’t need to be afraid when the dread champion is with you, when he has promised to never, never, never leave you nor never, never forsake you. (Note: in Hebrews 13:5, the Greek uses five negatives to emphasize these two critically important points.)

The basis of fear is being alone.

The dread champion has taken that out of the way. When Jesus Christ, the dread champion, went to the cross, he allowed himself to be nailed by his hands and his feet. They hoisted him up, suspended between heaven and earth, and as Jesus was suffering in agony and in blood, dying on the cross for your sins and mine, he said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

He died alone so that you would never have to be alone. He was forsaken so that you would never have to be forsaken. What is God’s answer to your fears? It is his open arms.

Questions:

1. How have you experienced God as your dread champion? Thank him today for fighting your battles.

2. Who do you know who may be feeling alone and fearful? How can you encourage them to turn to Jesus as their dread champion?

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