‍Originally published in the May 1991 edition of our magazine.

What kind of giants loom over you today? Do you face the giant of fear? Discouragement? Illness? Financial difficulties? Trouble with your children? The devil would like to make your problems become giants. He will say that what you face is too hard for the Lord—it’s impossible to conquer.

For everyone who faces a giant today, there is a question recorded in the first book of the Bible. It reads, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). When this question was asked, the situation referred to was truly impossible in the natural. God had promised a man named Abraham that he and his wife, Sarah, would have a son. But years went by and the promise wasn’t fulfilled. That difficulty likely grew until it seemed like a giant that could not be overcome. Sarah was well past the age of childbearing. Her womb had been closed for many years. But was it too hard for God? No! In their old age, when Abraham was one hundred and his wife ninety, they had the promised son. With God all things are possible.

A little farther on in the Bible, we read of literal giants that faced the Children of Israel. God had delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and led them to the border of Canaan. Moses, their leader, chose twelve men to spy out the country. But as these men walked through the Promised Land, ten of them could see only high-walled cities and giants. The longer they walked, the higher the walls seemed. The more they looked at the people in those cities, the bigger they seemed to become.

Oh, how the devil will take a challenging situation and just keep making it bigger and bigger!

When the spies reported back to Moses, they said, “The people are so big that we are like grasshoppers in their sight!” Now, these were big men. But were they so big that the Israelites were like grasshoppers by comparison? Oh, how the devil will take a challenging situation and just keep making it bigger and bigger!

Think of the man Daniel. Daniel lived a good life. He was faithful. He was honest. He was upright. But there were people who were jealous of him. They could find nothing to discredit him, but finally they came up with a plot. They had the king sign a decree that no man was to make a request of anyone except of the king for thirty days. Anyone who did would be thrown into a den of lions.

No doubt the devil told Daniel, “Now, you’ve done it. You’ll end up in that den of lions if you pray. You’d better just keep quiet.” Can’t you just imagine how the devil tried to put the giant of fear before him? But Daniel faced his giant head-on. He didn’t plead with God to change the king’s mind. The Bible says he went to his room, opened his windows toward Jerusalem, and gave thanks to the Lord.

It isn’t always easy to give thanks in the middle of a trial. But oh, that’s a giant-killer! And when they threw Daniel to the lions, God was there. He sent His angel to shut the lions’ mouths, and delivered Daniel.

When we think of giants, we recall one name: Goliath. He was a big man—more than nine feet tall. When he had on his full armor and his huge spear in his hand, what a sight he must have been! He strutted up and down cursing the armies of Israel. He shouted, “Send a man out to fight me.” All the army, from King Saul on down, saw that giant, and they were terrified. Not one of them wanted to face him. But a young man named David was willing to challenge Goliath. David didn’t worry about the giant’s size. He looked beyond what the devil tried to make him see. He took his sling and said, “The Lord will deliver me out of his hand.” And that’s just what happened.

David knew the power of his God. In the natural we would say a young lad could not possibly defeat a trained, fully-armored giant. But, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?”

All the giants weren’t conquered back in Bible times. The devil comes along in our day too, and tries to create giants in our lives. It’s not likely that lions will come our way. I doubt if anyone will send us to spy out a new land. But the devil will still try to bring giants before us.

Perhaps he’ll bring the giant of doubt. If we let doubt start in our lives, how fast it grows! It can get so big that it consumes us. If the giant of doubt comes, we must destroy it with the Word of God. We can resist the devil, and tell him, “Our God is able.”

The devil may bring the giant of discouragement. Like doubt, discouragement usually starts small. But if we let it come in, before long it becomes a giant. The devil will make us think, Nobody loves me. God doesn’t hear my prayer. I don’t really matter to Him. I’m so discouraged, why go to church? That giant of discouragement becomes so big it seems we will never overcome it.

Think about bitterness. Oh, what a giant that can become! Has someone offended you? Do you feel slighted? Ill-treated? Yes, it may have happened. But don’t let bitterness creep into your heart. The devil will make sure that it grows to mammoth proportions.

Think about bitterness. Oh, what a giant that can become! Has someone offended you? Do you feel slighted? Ill-treated? Yes, it may have happened. But don’t let bitterness creep into your heart. The devil will make sure that it grows to mammoth proportions. The Bible says that a little root of bitterness can spring up and defile many. How careful we must be to get rid of bitterness before it becomes a giant that can ruin us and many others.

Some years ago, my wife and I had an experience with the giant of the cares of life. We found out first-hand that those cares can slip in and grow almost unnoticed. Now this giant isn’t sin, but how overwhelming it can be!

When I got out of the service, I married. My wife and I had one child and before long we had two, three, and then four. I was working Saturdays and taking night jobs, trying to make ends meet. It seemed that just when we’d get our heads above water, the children needed school clothes or books. And when we’d get that paid for, the car would break down. The cares of life flooded in, and before long that giant was in our home.

I remember being so tired that when I’d get down to pray, I would fall asleep. It was hard to get to church regularly. But one day my wife and I talked it over. We decided that with God’s help, things were going to change. And as we began to pray more and pull together, how the Lord blessed us! We destroyed that giant of the cares of life. We proved that with God all things are possible.

The devil doesn’t put giants in front of Christians only. He comes to unsaved people and puts giants in their lives too. Sometimes he makes a giant out of restitution. He says it would be impossible to ask forgiveness or make something right. To someone else he says, “How can you ever live a Christian life on the job?”

That day my dad was completely delivered from the desire for tobacco. The giant was dead.

My own dad had a giant in his life that kept him from getting saved. Dad was a good man. He paid his bills, gave to the needy, and was a caring father to his children. But he couldn’t quit smoking. He felt he couldn’t be a Christian for that reason. And the devil used that giant for many years. Smoking took its toll. One day my dad was dying of cancer of the throat. A minister from this church came out and asked him, “Wouldn’t you like to pray?” And he said yes. That day my dad was completely delivered from the desire for tobacco. The giant was dead.

Some people say, “I don’t want to be bound by the rules of the church. They say I can’t do this and I can’t do that.” Those people are allowing their own desires to become a giant. When a person is saved, he has new desires. Then he says, “Show me how I can draw closer to the Lord.” That giant is defeated!

Shortly after I was saved, I went to work for a man who was not a Christian. Do you know what stood between him and salvation? His wife had said, “If you get saved, I’ll leave you.” That giant got bigger and bigger. He tried to soothe his conscience by joining the neighborhood church. He quit smoking cigars and going to taverns after work. Finally he became a Sunday school superintendent. That made him feel better for a while, but in his heart, he knew he hadn’t made his peace with God.

One day he could stand it no longer. He told God, “I’m going to serve You whether my wife takes the way or not.” The Lord saved him. And what happened? Within a week, his wife gave her heart to the Lord too. That couple spent almost twenty years in Korea as missionaries. And to think the devil had said, “Your wife will never come.” Oh, how that giant came tumbling down!

Let’s ask God to help us when the devil comes around to say, “It’s too hard.” Many times, in the natural, it is too hard. It may be impossible! But not with God. “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Today if there is a giant in your life, the devil would like to keep you looking at it. Don’t do it! Bring that giant before God and say, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” The answer is “No, our God is able.”