Book Review: Facing Your Giants

Background on the Author:
Max Lucado is the Senior Minister for the Oak Hill Church in San Antonio, Texas and has written several bestsellers and is considered America’s leading inspirational author.

Synopsis:
Facing Your Giants is a book that tells you the story of David and Goliath, which most of us have heard. It explains that all of these men were standing their afraid to fight the giants because they outnumbered them and were stronger. Goliath knew this and every day twice a day came out to the battlefield and would mock the other soldiers. Now David was young, he handled his father’s flock of sheep, he was also small compared to the soldiers but compared to the giants he was miniscule. But when he came to the encampment he was intimidated by the giants because he knew God was on his side and he challenged Goliath and won. But there are a couple of things to note that I hadn’t thought of before. He chose five stones, because besides Goliath there were four other giants that he was prepared to eliminate also, if he needed to. The book continues along this thread and explains how well David did in his life when he trusted and talked to God first, but when he didn’t and dealt with things on his own, he had problems. He was marked for an assassination attempt by the king, he lived in a cave and even dwelt in the land of giants for a while. The camp he created in the desert was ambushed while he went to battle and all of the women and children were taken. But he didn’t give up, he asked for God’s assistance and went after the women and children and were able to save them from slavery and death.

The book takes the trials and tribulations that David dealt with throughout his life and shows you how you can apply it to your life. For each scenario that David goes through, Mr. Lucado illustrates how you can use the information from David and get through your own personal giants. It doesn’t matter if your giants are small in comparison to others; they are still your giants and something you need to overcome. Mr. Lucado takes David’s life and applies it to your life and what you need to do to defeat your personal giants. Until we can overcome our giants it makes it difficult to become productive members of society and good Christians. It explains how you need to turn a deaf ear to discouragement and look at the new choices that are available to you.

Recommendation:
I would recommend this book, even if you don’t feel like you are going through a rough time right now. At some point all of us go through difficult times and if you know what to do ahead of time then the rough time won’t be as rough. It is a well-written book that is easy to read and understand. You can follow the logic of the author and it is easy to understand how to apply it to your life. It also includes a study guide at the end of the book to help you continue your studies into the bible.