What Giants?

Back in ancient history, God did a dazzling work in the lives of His people, the Israelites. He took them out of Egypt because the Egyptians were cruel to them and enslaved them. He miraculously loosened the grip of a God-hating and cruel dictator, and brought every man, woman, and child to freedom and rescue. The nation wandered in the desert for some time, but they were driven by God's promise that they would come into a fruitful land.

At last, they got there. As the Bible puts it, Canaan was a "land flowing with milk and honey." In other words, good! A man named Caleb along with some others went to scout out the land. The issue some found with the land is that it had giants in it. Inhabitants that seemed insurmountable. But Caleb remembered the word of the Lord, and he recognized that it doesn't matter what the land has; it matters that God over all people and all forces declared that the land belonged to His people! After all, He was the same God that brought this nation out from their slave drivers in Egypt!

I am having similar feelings to the Israelites right now. God is calling me to such new heights of freedom. It is SO beautiful! I am coming to realize what He is actually calling me to, and I never thought that it was possible. But crazily, sometimes I want to give up. I don't want to hope for things that shot me down in the past. Sometimes I don't want to walk in confidence around people that think I am ridiculous. Sometimes I don't want to speak life giving truths to people who don't agree with me and belittle what I have to say. Sometimes I don't want to try to obey God in places where I seem to always fail.

But His light is coming in here so sweetly. He is saying to me, His Beloved (this is all of us, by the way!), that I am running from the giants. It reminds me of the other day when I was babysitting for a new family. They have this enormous dog that, lying down, is about the length of me! He's some kind of wolf dog. I went to pet him and he tried to bite me. I was a little freaked, because dogs can be territorially protective. I got to thinking he may try to hurt me if I picked up the little girl I was caring for. But I heard God whisper in my ear that even this dog knows who I am, that I carry God's presence in me, and that he wouldn't bother me. Indeed, the dog didn't try to hurt me!

So I am pressing on. I am allowing Him to take me into these new places and not allow the giants/big wolf dogs to intimidate. That's all they really do, like shadows. They just lurk. But more important than appeasing them is walking this amazing adventure with my Savior who wants to be the rhythm my heart moves to. May you press on in faith as well, and live in so much freedom because of God's grace! Happy land-taking!