Spiritual Dwarf Mentality

Spiritual Dwarf Mentality

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

By Pastor James May

Giants are in the land; giants that are thundering threats into the ears of all men. Can you hear them roar? Do you feel their taunting down deep inside? Long ago, in a land far away, two armies were set in battle array on the crests of opposing hills. The valley below was what we might call today, “No Man’s Land”. To enter into that battle meant certain death or enslavement. The armies of either side would hold no quarter, show no mercy, for they were the bitterest of enemies.

Picture yourself on that battle line because each of us are represented there. On one side of the valley were the people of God, the armies of Israel, led by King Saul. On the other side of that valley was the army of the Philistines and they had invaded the land looking for blood. There could be no peace. There could be no compromise. It was either win or die.

Out into the valley stepped a giant of a man. Now you would have thought that since Saul was king of Israel and he was so much taller than every one else, that this giant might have been him. It should have been King Saul, stepping out in faith, knowing that the God of Israel was going to fight his battle for him. But that was not so.

Instead, it was the Giant of the Philistines named Goliath. This ungodly, idol worshipping man of the world stepped forward and defied the army of Israel. He wasn’t just defying Saul and his soldiers; he was challenging their faith in their God and he was challenging the very God of Israel. “Is there one among you who would dare to fight? Let him step forward and you can watch him die?”

On that day Saul stayed hidden in his tent; hidden behind guards who were just as afraid as he was. Who could blame them? When you look at what was happening through the eyes of the flesh, the situation seemed hopeless. Goliath was over eight feet tall and looked like he was wearing a Toyota for armor, and carried a spear the size of a 4 X 8 fence post with a tip on it that looked like a missile warhead. His shield bearer was the next biggest man in the army and the shield resembled a small bateau. This was not the kind of man that you would want to get into a one-on-one fight with; in fact you probably wouldn’t want to do so if you outnumbered him ten to one.

Every day that you live you are going to face some giants in your life. They may seem like giants of sickness; giants of loneliness; giants of pain; giants of despair; giants of financial need; giants of doubt, fear and frustration. Just as Goliath appeared so much bigger, the closer you got to him; so do all of the problems that you face. If you could see that problem coming then you could have made plans to escape it, but that’s not the way it happens. You are just cruising along, enjoying life when suddenly, there, square in the middle of the path that you must trod, stands a giant, or a mountain; something that seems so insurmountable.

I talk to people in the church all the time about some of the giants that they face. I don’t care how much faith you have, there will likely come a time when your faith will waver. You can rest assured that its going to be tested to the limit. That’s the only way that you can tell whether your faith is real or not.

Sometimes, though we try to force faith to arise in our hearts, the giant seems so huge that we begin to develop a “Spiritual Dwarf Mentality”. It’s not easy living in a world of giants if you have a dwarf mentality.

We can speak of faith, but where’s faith when the giant is there? Sometimes the problems we face are so huge that they obscure our vision of Christ. I’ve been there. I’ve seen times when the giants came flooding into my life. I felt the cold grip of doubt and wondered if this would be the end. None of us are immune to the attacks of the enemy. He’s always hanging nearby, just waiting for an opportune moment to rise up against you.

Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 17:20 “ (You could not cast out that devil), “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.