MEN: CONFRONTING & OVERCOMING THE GIANTS OF YOUR LIFE by Samuel H Johnson

Men face many challenges that can stop or delay their  advancement in life and the Kingdom of God. Sometimes the things we love are (or can) become the challenges in our lives. In other words, these challenges are your giants and every man must confront his giants. Our challenges are both external and internal - at work, school,  church, the community – all external but I believe it’s the challenges of the inner man that is most central to how we overcome our challenges and issues.

Your giants could be personal (physical, emotional, psychological), social or spiritual. Each of us must identify our giants first before we can defeat them. The Apostle identified the root cause of these giants in the scriptures:

1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things of the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. 

This scripture identifies every source, the root cause of every challenge, trials, test you will face in life. Also the Apostle John gives us the answer to our challenge  - He who does the will of the Father will endure. The will of God is the Word of God. The Bible has the solution to defeat every giant in your life.

There are great men in our country have faced and defeated their personal or social giants. The Bible is full of examples of how great men managed their challenges, their giants and defeated them. A look at their lives would be a lesson for every man alive.  

Here are some examples of giants men faced in the Bible:

#	Men	Giant	Scripture	Notes
1	Adam	Disobedience,  Lust for Power	Genesis 3	Expelled from the Garden of Eden
2	Lucifer	Pride	Isa 14; Ezek 28	Expelled from heaven and became satan
3	Moses	Frustration lead to Disobedience	Num 20:8-12	Had a murmuring and complaining congregation who did not see the promised land
4	Joshua, Caleb (12 spies)	Fear vs. trusting in God’s word	Numbers 13	Follow God rather than popular opinion
5	Gideon	Low self esteem	Judges 6	Called to lead but lived in doubt and low self esteem
6	Samson	Fornication, sexual immorality	Judges 13 thru 16	Lust of the flesh, died while fulfilling his destiny
7	King Saul	Disobedience,  Lust for Power	1 Samuel 15	Lost the anointing of God and the kingdom; rebellion - witchcraft and stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry
8	King David of Israel	Pride, Adultery, Murder	2 Sam 24; Acts 13	Numbered the people to show his power and the result was 70,000 died; Adultery and murder However David was always quick to repent; A man after God's heart.
9	Solomon (wisdom & wealth)	Sexual immorality, Idolatry	1 Kings 11:3	Womanizer, fornication lead to Idolatry
10	Naaman, captain of the King of Syria's army	Arrogance, Pride	2 Kings 5:1 – 11	Expected the prophet Elisha to do a public show to heal him instead of obeying instructions
11	Gehazhi, Elisha’s servant	Greed	2 Kings 5:20 - 27	Because of greed he got the leprosy of Naaman.
12	Daniel	Position and title	Daniel 6: 10-28	Sent to the lion’s den because of his belief in God. Faith in God in the face of death
13	Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego (3 Hebrew young men)	Position and title	Daniel 3: 13-30	Thrown into the fiery furnace because they stood on the Word of God. Trust and Faith in God in the face of death
14	Hosea	Unfaithful wife	Hosea 1	Obeyed God rather than leaving his wife
15	John the Baptist	Doubt, unbelief and offence due to being imprisoned by Herod.	Matt 11:2 - 6	Are you the one or should we look for another? Blind, lame, deaf, dead, poor (gospel) blessed who not offended.
16	Apostle Paul	Beatings, shipwreck, assassination, prison and death, Thorn in the flesh	Acts  10 to 26	Faithful to God and the call on his life. Humility – open every epistle – servant or slave of Christ
17	Apostle Peter	Racism, Prejudice	Gal 2: 11-21	Ate with the Gentiles but separated himself when the other Jewish Christians appeared
18	Apostle John	Persecution and prison	Revelation 1	Exiled to prison for preaching the Gospel
19	Fredrick Douglas	Fight racism in the church to help the anti-slavery movement; Was born a slave but still stood on Christian principles of truth, love and integrity		Regarded as a great man, an abolitionist against slavery
20	Martin Luther King Jr.	Racial discrimination		Walk in love at the risk of his life

The giant list: pride, disobedience, frustration, fear, persecution, sexual immorality, greed, lust for power and influence, pleasing man rather than God, doubt, unbelief, prejudice, racism and discrimination.

 What about you man? Do you know what are the giants in your life? Can you look into your soul to identify your weak areas? Can you track your life history to identify your past giants and how you handled them? Do you have a strategy to defeat them?

Jesus did – he faced every test and trial.  Jesus Christ faced and defeated the ultimate giants of sin and death by giving His life for all mankind so we can be victorious over our giants.

The question for you and I is – Do you have a strategy to defeat your giants?