Faith! Time and again throughout the Scriptures we are told that, if only we show trust and faith, anything is possible. There was the faith of Moses, when the Israelites reached the Red Sea, that God would protect them from the pursuing Egyptian army. Later on, in the time of Samuel, He said that if the people they gave up their worship of idols and returned to the worship of God, He would protect them from the Philistines. These are just two examples of how the Father rewards complete trust and faith. And yet in a little over 500 years so many of the descendants of these people had turned away again from God that they had divided the Nation in two and, in spite of God's warnings through His prophets, one part had been taken into captivity, and so dispersed among the surrounding nations, that they became lost amongst the peoples of the World and never returned. While the other part were taken into captivity in Babylon for seventy years.

The trouble is that, sometimes, our faith just isn't strong enough. Take Peter for example. Jesus had told the disciples to take a boat and row over to the other side if the Sea of Galilee, but when they were about three miles out a storm had suddenly blown up. The disciples were worried in case it got worse, and then they saw their beloved Master walking towards them on the water.

Their first thought was "It's a spirit.". Then Peter said; "Lord, if it's you tell me to come to you on the water." So Jesus said; "Come." Peter quickly climbed out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus, ~ but he took his eyes off his Lord, and then he saw again how big the waves were; his fears returned and he immediately began to sink, so he shouted out; "Lord, save me." Jesus took his hand and said; "You of little faith. Why did you doubt? "

Throughout our lives, we often have storms, difficulties and doubts. There are often questions of what we should do, or how we're going to achieve something that seems impossible: and most of our Giants ‑ our trials and tribulations, our obstacles and difficulties ‑ are put in the way by the arch enemy, Satan.

The answer, is, as Peter tells us in verses 8-10 of chapter 5 of his first letter; "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation") The devil is the author of all our doubts. He is the one who puts the idea into our head that the job's too much for us, or that the way's too steep. All the time he's trying to get us to say, the going's too hard, we can't go on, we must turn back: and when we do, he wins a victory. We must never give him the chance to say that he was too much for us and that he made us give up. Remember the words of the Psalmist, when in Psalm 118, he tells us how much better it is to take refuge in the Lord, than to trust in men, when we are surrounded by difficulties. Then, in verses 12-14, he continues; "They swarmed around me like bees; they blazed against me like a roaring flame. But I destroyed them all in the name of the LORD. You did your best to kill me, O my enemy, but the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my victory."

We are regularly getting quite painful stings from some memory, remorse or regret, from a fear, a foreboding or a worry. We don't like them, we try to avoid them, but God is putting us through his school of faith and He lets us experience these stings to show us that, if we trust in Him, worrying is un-necessary and our doubts and fears can be destroyed.

God is never in a hurry. He spends years preparing those He expects to use. He never thinks the days of preparation too long or too dull, but this, taking of time, is what we don't like. A short sharp sting of suffering we can bear, but if it drags on over many weeks or even years our hearts begin to lose strength and without the support and grace of our Heavenly Father we would sink into the depths of despair.

There is a 'need to be' in every lesson, not just for God to teach us to trust and obey, but to strengthen us for our roles as a Kingdom of Priests: and when we are ready, all our trials will be brought to an end. We may not be able to see the outcome of God's purpose; it may be hidden from us for a long time, but faith tells us that He is calmly sitting on His throne waiting for the right moment. When we try to understand this, and trust in His wisdom, we will defeat any Giant that comes our way and they will never be able to harm us or worry us again.

Now there is something here that many Christians overlook. They gladly, and sincerely, give their hearts to the Lord, but they keep their heads to themselves. Paul says to us, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10.5)

The only remedy for disturbing thoughts is to stop thinking our own thoughts, to be, so to speak, spiritually beheaded. In this way we are freed from our natural mind and transplanted with the mind of Christ. To do this God puts us through His school of experience to make us learn to stop thinking for ourselves. To learn just to be still and know that He is God. That He will sustain us and bring us safely through.

Now there seems to be an idea, amongst many Christians, that if we have given our life to the Lord then the pathway of faith will be smooth, and it will be 'Roses, Roses, all the way'. Many seem to think that when God comes into the life of one of His people then His power will lift us above all trials and conflicts. As Peter again, in his letter tells us: "Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad ‑ because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world. Be happy if you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God will come upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his wonderful name! " (1 Peter 4.12-16)

So we can expect trials but Paul was so sure that our anxieties would be calmed if only we would take our troubles, in faith and trust, to our heavenly Father that he wrote, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again - rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4.4 ‑7)

If we can only share Paul's belief and trust in the love and power of Jesus, - not half-heartedly, but to the point of being willing to lay our life on the line for our belief ‑ then we can face anything, any Giant that comes along, because we know that, whatever is happening is for the Lord's sake, and he is always with us, to help us and support us, as we face up to the Giants.

When we lay our problems before the Lord, our very expectancy enables Him, through the Holy Spirit, to do what we have laid on Him. But there are some who will say, 'I can't see any results', but rest assured, He is working on the difficulty. We're looking to Jesus to do it and although our faith may be tested, He is working on it and His word is sure. We can't fail if only we dare to trust, to believe, to stand fast and refuse to be overcome

Conditions in the world today, make us tend to think that our Giants are much bigger than those that had to be faced in the past, we say that their Giants were mostly superstitious nonsense, but that, today, we've got real Giants like, drugs, violence and terrorism. But the Christians of the past had their real Giants. There were many who died for their faith, in the arena, during the persecutions of Nero and other Roman Emperors. A great many more lost their lives for possessing a Bible at a time when it was a capital offence to own one, because it was considered by the Church of Rome to be the sole right of the clergy to read from it.

However, neither the early Christians and Martyrs down through the years since our Lord died, or ourselves, have the copyright on Giants. Jesus had his Giants to face. During the time of His ministry our Lord endured all sorts of troubles and overcame all kinds of obstacles, from plain disbelief of who He was and in what He said, to attacks on His sanity and finally on His life. He dealt with all these difficulties by prayer to his Father in Heaven and by believing and trusting that, as long as He did the will of His Father, then His Father would protect Him and guide Him.

It is when we consider the greatest obstacle of all that He had to face, the knowledge that one of his followers was going to betray Him and that, as a result of that betrayal, He must face the agony of the cross, that we realise just how small our troubles are in comparison with His.

I think that most people, knowing just how horrific a death it is, would find it hard to voluntarily allow themselves to be crucified. To be shot - yes! To be hanged - possibly! These are said to be relatively painless ways to die. But crucified - NO! And yet Jesus knowing that He would be crucified, and being well aware of just how terrible a death it would be, allowed Himself to be arrested and given a completely illegal trial, by the leaders of the Jewish people who took Him before Pilate and falsely accused Him of plotting rebellion against Rome, without one word of protest, because He knew that only by His death could His Father's plan, of salvation for all men, be fulfilled.

It has been asked, if Jesus had to die to fulfil God's plan, why did it have to be in such a slow and agonising way? But, if we think about it for a few moments we realise that if all Jesus had to do was die, quickly and painlessly, then it wasn't so much of a test. Most of us could, probably quite willingly, give our lives to save someone we love, as long as it was going to be quick and painless: but a slow, lingering, and extremely painful death would be another matter altogether. That is why Jesus had to endure crucifixion. It had to be something bad enough to cause a man to turn back rather than go through with it. But His love for us, and His overwhelming wish to do the will of His Father, together with His trust in God's promise that, on the third day, He would be resurrected, made this Giant of all Giants into a grasshopper.

In his book, Jeremiah wrote; "But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit." (Jeremiah 17.7-8)

The Lord is our stream of Living Water, towards whom we send our roots. There's no need to worry in times of spiritual darkness: no need to worry about spiritual supplies, or, for that matter, about physical supplies of food and clothing. As Luke writes, our Lord said; "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not! And if worry can't do little things like that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things?" (Luke 12. 25-26)

Whenever we come up against Giants, whether they are mountainous obstacles or just plain everyday problems, we have a whole host of comforts that we can find in God's word. But the most important comfort of all is that we can go to our Heavenly Father, through Jesus, in prayer and in faith, knowing that He hears us and will answer us.

Perhaps we should keep our minds on what Paul wrote to the Ephesians (3.14-20) "When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvellous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God."

RJH