Are You Tolerating or Terminating?

What have you allowed to remain in your life simply because you’ve learned how to live with it?

Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 17:1-51

For forty days, the army of Israel faced the same giant. Morning after morning, evening after evening, Goliath stepped into the valley, mocked the people of God, and challenged them to fight. Israel had an army. They had weapons. They had a covenant with God. Yet they stood there trembling. They didn’t like Goliath. They were afraid of Goliath. But they tolerated Goliath.

And sometimes, that is exactly what happens to us.

We know something is wrong, but we become accustomed to it. We don’t want it, but we learn how to manage it. We pray for enough relief to get through another day instead of believing God for complete victory.

Does any of this sound familiar?

“If I can just get a little relief, I can manage the rest.”

“If God would just take care of this one bill, I can handle everything else.”

“If I could just feel better for a while, I could keep going.”

However, Jesus did not die so that we could be saved halfway. He didn’t purchase partial freedom, partial victory, or a life where we simply learn to coexist with the works of the enemy.

Romans 8:37 declares, “Yet in all these things WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS through Him who loved us.” First Corinthians 15:57 says, “But thanks be to God, WHO GIVES US THE VICTORY through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” The issue is not whether God is willing and able. The issue is whether we have become willing to tolerate what God has given us the power and authority to confront.

When the Enemy Becomes the New Normal

Goliath had been doing the same thing for forty days. Eventually, his presence became part of Israel’s routine. That is one of the dangers of toleration. What we initially recognize as an attack can eventually become our new “normal.” We can become comfortable with sickness, lack, fear, addiction, depression, torment, or other destructive influences that satan brings into our lives. We may dislike them and wish we didn’t have them, but we stop expecting them to leave and things to change.

So, as a result, we adjust.

We accommodate.

We manage.

We think it’s not too bad – I can handle it.

Here’s the Thing: a Little Torment is Still Torment

And when we continually make room for something, it can become established. A foothold can become a stronghold. The longer a problem is allowed to remain rooted, the more difficult it can become to remove.

Think about a dandelion. Pull it while it is small, and it comes out easily. Leave it alone, and its roots become established. Even worse, if it goes to seed, it’ll spread to create countless more dandelions. The same principle applies to something as simple as oatmeal left in a bowl or paint left in a brush. What is new and fresh is easily removed, but if left unchecked, it can become hardened, difficult to remove, and can even spread to create even bigger problems.

Song of Solomon 2:15 (NKJV) says, “Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines, For our vines have tender grapes.”

Catch them while they are little. Deal with them before they become established.

So, ask yourself an uncomfortable but necessary question: What have I tolerated in my life long enough for it to become my new normal? Because as long as we tolerate something, we allow it to continue speaking and impacting our lives. And what we allow to remain can begin to mock the very God we serve.

David Saw a Different Possibility

When David arrived in the valley, he heard Goliath’s challenge and immediately asked, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26). Notice the difference? For forty days, Israel had focused on the size of the giant, but David immediately focused on the greatness of God and the promises He gave to them as His chosen people. The army saw an impossible problem. David saw an opportunity to trust the God who had already proven Himself faithful. David remembered how God delivered him from the lion and the bear and even used him to eliminate the threat. He remembered that God had delivered him before, and now David was ready to trust Him again.

Notice that 1 Samuel 17:48 says, “David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.”

David Ran Toward the Thing Everyone Else Was Running From

Faith does not mean that the giant isn’t real. It means the giant is not greater than the God who stands with you. Sometimes we spend too much time studying the giant and not enough time remembering God’s track record. David knew what God had done for him before, so he was willing to trust Him with what was happening now.

Don’t Stop When the Giant Falls

David struck Goliath with the stone, and the giant fell face down. Victory! But David didn’t stop there. When you read the passage 1 Sam 17:49-51, you’ll notice that the Philistine army didn’t retreat when Goliath first fell. David took Goliath’s sword, killed him, and cut off his head. Then the Philistines fled.

David understood something we must understand as well: Don’t confuse a moment of relief with complete victory.

A giant on the ground is good news. But David didn’t settle for a giant who was merely knocked down. He finished the battle. The voice that had mocked Israel and blasphemed God was silenced.

1 John 3:8 gives us a powerful reason for the coming of Christ: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, not accommodate them. Not teach us to tolerate them. Not give us just enough strength to manage them. To destroy them.

Jesus declared in Matthew 28:18, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” He then commissioned His followers to go.

In Matthew 10:8, He instructed them to “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons” with the very same power and authority that He had been given. God has not called His people to live powerless lives while the enemy operates unchecked. He has given us authority and expects us to exercise it as representatives of Christ in the earth.

Don’t Fight in Your Strength

Perhaps you’ve told yourself, “I’m strong. I can take it.” Yet the Christian life was never intended to be lived by human strength alone. You’ve been trying to use your strength to take it, when God wants you to use His strength to overtake it.

David’s confidence wasn’t in David; his confidence was in God…and that distinction changes everything.

We don’t fight against people – they’re not our enemy. But we can refuse to tolerate the destructive works of the enemy: fear, torment, bondage, worry, sickness, anxiety, lack, depression, confusion, and every work that contradicts God’s Word. God wants us to pursue victory relentlessly, understanding that He’s already given us the victory (1 Cor 15:57).

2 Samuel 22:38–41 records David describing how he pursued his enemies until they were destroyed and could not rise again.

There is a difference between surviving a battle and finishing it by vanquishing your enemy. Don’t become satisfied with just enough relief to manage the problem, and don’t settle for a glimpse of victory when God has called you to pursue and receive total victory. You’ve been created and called to become relentless in faith against every work of the enemy.

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Six Ways to Stop Tolerating and Start Terminating

1. Recognize the giant

Stop pretending the problem isn’t there. Identify what you are facing and bring it before God.

2. Rebuke it to its face

David didn’t quietly accept Goliath’s words. He confronted the challenge.

3. Reject its right to remain

Don’t make an agreement with what God has called you to resist.

4. Race to it with your faith

Don’t continually delay obedience and confrontation. David ran toward the giant.

5. Remove it completely

David didn’t stop when Goliath fell. He finished the battle. Don’t settle for partial victory when God has called you more than a conqueror.

6. Rejoice over it louder than it tormented you

Let the testimony of God’s faithfulness become louder than the voice that once intimidated you.

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The question is not whether you have a giant; the question is what you are doing with the giant.

Are you tolerating it or are you terminating it?

Don’t allow yesterday’s battle to become today’s normal and tomorrow’s destiny. Don’t become so accustomed to the voice of the enemy that you stop recognizing it as an enemy. Jesus has not called you to a life of merely managing what opposes you. He has called you to walk in faith. To stand in His authority. To trust His strength. To persevere.

And when the giant falls, don’t stop there–Finish the battle.

Don’t just knock your giant down... make sure he can’t rise again.

Feature Image: David vs Goliath GENAI Text to Image; Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.