Slaying the Giants in Your Life

This book was excellent!!! This book explained how to fight battles of the mind. There are 11 giants that David discussed. There was also a chapter that discussed how fear works and how it's a sin against God and how to fight it.
1) Discouragement
2) Loneliness
3) Worry
4) Guilt
5) Temptation
6) Anger
7) Resentment
8) Doubt
9) Procrastination
10) Failure
11) Jealousy
  The Bible talks a lot about not losing heart which actually points to the giant of discouragement. Discouragement means to deprive of courage and disheartened. Discouragement comes from four things fatigue, frustration, failure, and fear. When things go wrong we are more likely to listen to the enemy and we start to buy into his lies and distortions. When this giant comes into your life fight it with five tools. Cry out to God, continue to do the work God had given you, see the big picture, let God encourage you through the promises of the word, carry someone's burden.
   Studies have pointed out that loneliness is the key to depression, paranoia, rape, suicide, and a bunch of other things too. Loneliness is a sense of searching for completeness which we fill with everything but God. The greatest examples of loneliness in the Bible were David, Jeremiah, and Paul. How to slay this giant involves acknowledge why you are lonely, accept God's provision,  fill your mind with God's word, and talk to your Christian friends.
   Worry means to take thought, to be careful, a divided mind between what's real and what's possible. Worry is inconsistent, irrational, ineffective, illogical, and irreligious. To fight this giant you need a system of priorities and a strategic program. Don't dwell on yesterday's success or on yesterday's distress.
   Guilt is the silent giant. Guilt kills by silence, sorrow, and secrecy. To breakthrough, guilt let it out into the light by confession to yourself and God. Remove the sin, restore the joy, renew the fellowship, and refocus on the future. Nothing is worse than the imprisonment of guilt by hiding your sin.
   Temptation the devil has a way of slipping blinders on us when it comes to this giant. God will give you a way out if you are looking for it. Remember He knows what we can bear and the limits to our endurance. The best thing to do when it comes to temptation is to stand firm, know that Gid ha been there and He is strong enough to pull you through it. The tools for temptation have recognized the possibility of temptation, ask for help, resist the devil and he will flee from you, retreat from it, remove any means of it sinking its teeth in, replace bad influences with good, and take the high road.
   The giant of anger is a tricker one because there are two types of anger biblical and sinful. Jesus has biblical anger when He was in the temple because His anger was focused on injustice against people against God. it was not about himself. Sinful anger is bitterness, grudges, wrath, rage, tantrums, and the evil-speaking tongue. What to do to fight this giant. Don't nurse it, rehearse it, converse, or disperse.
   Resentment cuts deep and it makes us permanently angry, keeps us chained to the past, it's like a poison sucking the life out of everything around it. Getting through resentment you need to think it through, write it down, work it out with exercise, talk it over, and forget it.
   Having doubt makes every belief we have to want to crumble. Doubt is the opposite of faith. Doubt develops isolation, being alone and sad makes it worse,  demands evidence, darkness feeds doubt, but on the positive side, doubt makes us lean on God more in times of trouble and deepens our faith. Repressed doubt can be the devil's foothold. How to disarm this giant. Admit to the doubt, figure out what you doubt and why you doubt, turn it into prayers, analyze it, and accept the limitations.
    Procrastination robs you of opportunities for service, be successful, for salvation, and the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Procrastination doesn't take into account uncertainty, if you pile up enough tommorows you will have a lot of empty yesterdays. Handle the present with honor and you will be honored in the future. What are you waiting for?
    Failure leads to dread. God shines brightly in the dark, He strengthens you in your weakness, failure is guaranteed, God understands failure, he doesn't condone it, but he had compassion that has no limit. We fail now to succeed later and we fail on the outside to succeed inwardly. Fighting failure includes acknowledging it, accepting God's forgiveness, failure is not a way of life, fall down enough and you will learn to walk. arise from it and start again, don't judge others for it, and perception doesn't always equal reality.
     Jealousy boils within us, it's coarse and cruel, it's everywhere and it destroys others and us. Facing this giant requires renouncing it as sin, pray for what is bothering you, reaffirm God's goodness, and rekindle God's love.