Goliath Must Fall

Welcome back to the blog for a new article and if you are new here: welcome. Lately it's been a little bit of a struggle to keep up with my post schedule as well as my commitment to this blog and my audience. As you know ( and I have said times and times), my writing is nothing but the reflection of [sometimes] my inner dialogues and the unfiltered emotions that hit my soul. And lately my soul has been going through things: peaks and valleys, ups and downs, twists and turns, rising mountains and drops in the abysses. And if you are anything like me, feeling like living this life can be equivalent to walking on the edge of a precipice, then you know how exhausting this can be. I felt (and still feel at time) like I was put through a wringer and sucked dry of any resources that I could possibly depend on to keep walking. In the midst of what seemed like a drought, a moment where I couldn't even find the courage to step on here and speak of matters that summon our ability to hope against all hope, to fight and walk banking on God, I wrote In The Midst Of The Heartbreak. And then I went to God and to my person, the one who, along with God, was there when that whole blogging journey began, the president of the board of director of my Godly counsel: my sister. I went to her and to God with my worries and my fear of never getting past one of the biggest writer's block I have ever had in the six years that I have been blogging and she said something like this: "sometimes the things you write when your soul is going through all kind of battles don't always make sense. But still, you ought to write because out of the dryness of your soul, will come something that someone reading your words needs". It is the light version but it actually sounded deeper and more poetic than that.

Anyway, I went back to God and thought about something I could bring to you. Something that stood true to my writing voice and my commitment to bring authenticity and transparency (to some extend) in every post in such a way that people could relate to and identify with the things I was talking about. And as I brainstormed and prayed and sought directions, it so happen that I had finished up reading Goliath Must Fall by Louie Giglio and was thinking of an angle I could exploit to do a review of this book that would do it justice. In a split second, it all clicked and the next series - inspired by this book- I would write about was born.

"I doesn't have to be alcoholism or anorexia or depression. Giants come in all sizes, some subtle and others stark. The good news is that it's not God's plan for you to live with anything standing in the middle of your life, demoralizing you day by day by day. These giants harm you and rob God of his glory in your life. God wants you to live free. God wants your giant to fall. [...] But first need to realize that it's not a simple wish that your giant will fall some day, some time. No. it's a mandate. Goliath must fall. [...] If God has it his way, we live free and He gets glory for being the giant-killer"

Louie Giglio, Your giant is going down, Goliath Must Fall.

But first let's talk about the book. I came across it a few months ago after a listening to a Goliath must fall podcast series from Agincourt Pentecostal Church and I found it so interesting that I needed to get my hands on this book it was inspired from. After finishing it, I tried siting and working on a review but there was something particular about that book. It wasn't a book you could just get three or four lessons from, all  summarized in bullet points, and then keep moving with your life: it was a deeply life altering and transformative narration of a story we've all read before (and which, ironically, I had happen to write about) : The story of David and Goliath [with a twist to it].

Although we have been hyped to see us through David in our attempts to fight and slain our giants, Louie Giglio is inviting us to look at this story from the battlefield as the soldiers who couldn't gather the courage to face Goliath, and look at David as Jesus, the mighty savior who seemingly wasn't much but defeated at once all of our taunting giants by triumphing of them on the cross of Calvary.

Not only is this book interesting because of this twist when it comes to covering the main storyline, but also because of all the background stories and subtle yet taunting giants hiding in it too.  

It is a book that addresses the most obvious giants that show up into our lives as Goliath such as anger, fear and addiction and the subtle yet taunting ones such as rejection and comfort (probably the sneakiest of all as we don't think of it as being a giant but it very much is). This is a book that goes beyond the surface and calls the readers (myself included) to take an honest look at the state of our lives, souls and hearts, acknowledging (and accepting) our need for a savior to deliver us from our taunting giants which we've successfully failed at defeating. It is a book beautifully crafted and stitched together with words that break down our walls and bring us to a place of safety in God where surrendering and being vulnerable while calling upon, crying to him and pleading, leads us to the victory, deliverance, healing, restauration and most importantly the presence of God; things we all long for whether we dare to acknowledge it or not. It is a powerful paradigm shift that moves us from relying on things and people (just like Saul relied on his weapons and army) and overcoming deception, to relying on God and His powerful grace to finally see the ending that brings Glory to Him in our life and leaves us fulfilled, satisfied and not wanting for more except for His presence. 

It is a beautifully and inspiring book that I cannot wait to share with you in the upcoming series called The Taunting giant & The Mighty God, hoping it can do to you as much good as is did to my soul. Until then, you can get this book from Barnes and Nobles (where I got mine from), online and/or in any other store where it is sold. I truly think it is a staple that any christian needs, one of those books that should be found in the vicinity of where you read/study your Bible. It is a definite five stars for me and I am sure that as I write this series and long after, it will be one of those books I will reach for.

It's all for today's edition of Underneath The Cover!

See you soon and may God keep you safe, grant you strength to get through what you are going through and turn what you think are defeats into victories and testimonies.

Until then,

The Happiness Fairy

👸

In The Midst Of The Heartbreak

A broken heart can be disheartening (no pun intended) but not as much as ministering with a broken heart. Life has been challenging lately and the reason why this article is coming up late is because I couldn’t find words to write, words to say in order to bring hope, light and minister the way I have always done and the way I started doing it this year particularly (if you have been following me for a while you will know what I am talking about). So I sat down, trying to process my emotions but truly my own heartbreaks, trying to write something, anything. But nothing felt “good enough” to be shared here. But most importantly, nothing sounded real. All the words that I penned down felt like a lie and if I could not identify with it, then certainly people that come here for solace or really just to find something to carry on, would definitely not identify/ relate to it. So I stopped. I prayed and I waited for my heart to settle and for a solid word of encouragement to step on and start building from and here we are today. So if you made it to this article welcome [back] and thank you for your patience. 

When people think of ministering, the first thought that comes to their mind is church: preaching, being a pastor and/or hitting those high notes on the choir rehearsal. But ministering really goes beyond the pulpit or the church as a building or a community. Ministering is about God AND the use of the gifts that you have received. And one of my gift is writing. If you have ever been to that space where everything just feels like a constant struggle, where you barely get away with making it day by day when it come to the things life throws your way and if you are as passionate and creative about what you do, then you know how disheartening it can be to not be able to tap into your God-given gifts to inspire/ bring light to people around you. Ministering with a broken heart is hard: when you can’t deliver, when you feel stuck and can’t move, when the taunting voice of Goliath drowns the echo of your faith and the word of God in your heart and you feel defeated, unsure of whether or not you will make it. It is hard. But God is bigger and He is the one who delivers us with a mighty hand. 

So how do you minister with a broken heart? 

First you go to God and you give it all to Him. Jesus has called us in Matthew 11:28 to come to Him and He will give us rest. So you really, you just go to God: for all the things that just seem to be too much, too painful, too big and too heavy to carry; and you exchange all those heavy burdens for His peace and His rest. He is the only one that can lift up our burdens and lighten our daily load. And Peter in 1 Peter 5:7 is as inviting as is Jesus to go God because He is a a good father than can care for us in ways nobody else would. As you go to God to cast all your cares on Him, you ask Him to give you strength and carry you through whatever it is that you are going through. God can allow some things to come your way but He will ALWAYS - and trust me when I say ALWAYS- show up when you need him and deliver you (Ps 34:19). And God will give you strength to carry on if you rely on Him and Him alone (Ps 55:22). And there is a reason for it: God’s riches supply is unlimited (Eph 3:16) while as human you grow tired and weary. God is the only one who can renew our strengths and keep us going when, to any human being, it seems impossible to overcome some of the difficulties that we may encounter in life. Our ability to overcome will directly depend on our ability to tap into God’s unlimited resources by going to Him. All we have to do is to ask 

The next thing to do is arm yourself with patience. A heartbreak doesn’t heal overnight and sometimes it can take a while for God to work through our situations and/or mess. You have to be patient as God perfects His work in your heart and your life. I have come to understand in the various situations and circumstances that have happen during my walk with God that He is the master of time and timing. He is not moved by time or our feelings of being out of time: He moves on his own timing and yet, is never out of time. So if He is never out of time and if perfection – which is defined here by the work of God in our lives- takes time, then there is no need to rush. The end will always be the same: God always wins. 

Last but not least, as we constantly go to God exchanging our burdens for his light load our strengths being renewed every day and patiently wait on Him, it is necessary for us to keep our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. We have to keep our eyes on him because if we don’t, we go back to square one. Why? When we are not looking at him, we are looking at all the things going wrong, and then we get into our feelings and the healing time starts to feel longer and before we know we are looking for something else (or someone else) to heal things, deal with things or mend the things that can only be healed by, dealt with and mended by God. And I know because I have been there. The end sight is not pretty and the consequences and delays are never worth it. Now will all of this be easy? Absolutely not! There will be things and people and situations that will test at least one (if not all) of those things mentioned above. There will be taunting giants trying to discourage you and there will be your flesh and your feelings and your thoughts standing in the way of your healing, restoration and breakthrough. But the good news is they need not win. And if you truly dwell in the Lord and keep your eyes on Him for all and everything, He will get you through it. 

Hoping this blessed someone and if you are going through some difficult times, know that things get better and they will because God always wins. Always.