“Overcoming Life’s Giants” by Reva Lachica Moore
My son had invited my husband and me to attend his Car Show in Baton Rouge. He told us to go to the main tent where he had placed chairs for us so we would not get tired standing up. When we reached the racetrack, we found the tent but our son wasn’t there and there was a couple sitting on the chairs. I did not know the couple and did not feel like asking them to leave, so we just stood near the tent. When my son came and saw us standing, he asked his assistant to kindly ask the couple to give up the chairs.
The woman who sat in one of the chairs asked me, “Do you want your chair?”
I was startled by her question so I just shrugged my shoulders.
“Listen,” she said, “anytime you are ready to sit down, just let me know and I will get up.” I couldn’t believe the couple’s impoliteness to sit on the chairs that did not belong to them.
My husband and I stood up for an hour before the couple finally left and we were able to sit down. The chairs were not a big deal, besides we did not want the couple to get up. But what if what were given to us were important things? Would I want to claim them as ours?
During the Bible times when God gave to His people the land of Canaan, the Land of Milk and Honey, that was a very important matter. God, the Creator of the Universe, told Abraham that the land on the left, the land on the right and wherever his eyes could see – all those He was giving to Abraham and his descendants forever.
However, as time went by, doubt and fear started to grow in the hearts of God’s people. Will they really possess the Land that God had promised to their forefathers?
After Moses led God’s people out of Egypt, again God told Moses and the children of Israel that Canaan, the land that He had promised to Abraham, belonged to them.
Yet, Moses sent out people to spy out the land to see what kind of people lived there. Whether the inhabitants were strong or weak, few or many. If the people lived in tents or in strongholds and whether the land was rich or poor. This showed trepidation on Moses’ part.
If God promised to give you something, will you willingly accept it without any doubt or question? Or, will you try to find out if what God is giving you is good or bad?
God had already given Canaan to Abraham and his descendants. However, the men that Moses sent to search out Canaan became quite afraid about the land and the people that lived there. Carrying on their shoulders huge grapes that they had picked from the land, they reported that indeed, Canaan was a Land of Milk and Honey but the city was walled and difficult to seize. They reported that giants lived in that place. “The children of Anak have great stature,” they said, “and we are like grasshoppers compared to them.” Their report was bad; it put fear in the hearts of the Israelites; it discouraged them from going to conquer the Land of Promise, which was already theirs in the first place. They have forgotten that God had already given the land to them and all they had to do was to claim the land and God will do the rest.
The Israelites were afraid of the “giants” in Canaan. How about you? Do you have giants paralyzing you with fear today? Have you asked God to slay your giants for you? Are the giants in your life keeping you discouraged, causing your faith to waver? The giants in your life can come in many forms: discouragements, disappointments, possibility of losing a job or house, piling up debts, relationship problems, an illness, other things. After you have given your problems to God and had put your trust in Him, REMEMBER that only GOD can conquer the “giants” in your life. You need not be afraid anymore. God is the Creator of the Universe and He is all powerful and loving. God is still the same today and forever and His promises are true and He will not forsake you.
Genesis 17:8 “And I will give you and your seed after you, the land where you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”