All In, All Yours: Stepping Into God’s Peace and Promises by Heidi Lee AndersonSample

Obstacle #3: In the Shadow of Your Giants

What giants are casting their shadows over you today? What’s the challenge, obstacle, or struggle towering over you, seeming far bigger than you could fight in your own strength?

Is it that mountain of debt blocking your peace?

Is it the giant of health concerns that overshadows your joy?

Is it a relationship, a hiccup in your career path, or the loss of a loved one that darkens your world no matter how brightly the sun shines?

The Israelites get it. Those of us who believe Sasquatch to be more fact and less fiction can picture the scene as they face off with Canaanite giants in Joshua 11. Their enemy’s size was unmatched. Their military strength was renowned. And their fortressed cities were impenetrable.

So much so, even ma and pa couldn’t deal. Back in the day, when Moses sent ahead spies to scope out Canaan, the majority came back quaking in their boots. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are! . . . The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. . . . We even saw giants there. . . . Next to them we felt like grasshoppers” (Numbers 13:31-33, NLT). Cue the trumpet: waa, waa, waaaa. Because they chose to believe their fear was bigger than their ­God—and paid the price because of it.

Fast-forward to the moment when their kids are now facing these same descendants of Anak that had previously cost the Israelites the Land of Promise. Now, it all came down to this next generation: Would they follow the retreating footsteps of their parents or press forward and seize the promise of God?

Spoiler: They decided their mom and dad had it flipped. It didn’t matter that they looked like grasshoppers beside these towering giants because their God “sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to Him!” (Isaiah 40:22, NLT, italics added).

The same is true with the giants we face. They may look scary, I know. They may be bigger and stronger than us, no doubt. But when have we ever stood alone?

God Himself stands with us, promises to help us, and has every plan to uphold us (Isaiah 41:10). Our problems are nothing but puny insects under His feet, and He is more than capable of repelling them. So today, instead of fixating on our giants and our smallness in comparison, let’s assume His vantage point and see what our giants really look like . . . mere grasshoppers to our great God.

Today’s travel tip: Giants may tower over you,but know they’re under God’s feet.