Introduction

One of the most dangerous things fear can do to a person is not simply make them afraid. Fear can make them forget.

It can make you forget what God has done.

It can make you forget what God has said.

It can make you forget who God is.

Fear has a way of making today's problem look bigger than yesterday's miracle.

This is exactly what happened to the children of Israel in Numbers 13.

God had delivered them from Egypt. He had opened the Red Sea before them. He had fed them with manna in the wilderness. He had guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

Then God brought them to the border of Canaan.

He told Moses to send twelve men to spy out the land.

They went into Canaan and returned with evidence that the land was exactly as God had promised. They carried back grapes so large that two men had to carry them on a pole.

But ten of the spies saw something else.

They saw giants.

They saw fortified cities.

They saw their own weakness.

And suddenly, they forgot God.

Their problem was not that they saw the giants.

Their problem was that they saw the giants and forgot God.

1. FEAR MAKES YOU FORGET WHAT GOD HAS ALREADY DONE

The Israelites had witnessed extraordinary miracles.

They had seen God judge Egypt with plagues.

They had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground.

They had watched Pharaoh and his army perish in the sea.

They had experienced God's provision in the wilderness.

Yet when they saw the inhabitants of Canaan, fear took over.

Numbers 13:31 says:

"We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we."

Notice their language:

"We are not able."

They were looking at the situation from the perspective of their own strength.

They forgot that God had never asked them to conquer Canaan by their own strength.

Fear made them remember their weakness and forget God's power.

This happens to us too.

Sometimes God has brought us through things that should have permanently settled our confidence in Him.

But when a new challenge appears, we panic again.

God delivered you before, but fear says, "What if this time is different?"

God provided before, but fear says, "What if there is not enough this time?"

God healed, restored, opened doors and made ways before, but fear says, "This problem is too big."

Fear has a short memory. Faith remembers.

David understood this principle.

When David stood before Goliath, he remembered what God had already done.

He said:

"The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."
1 Samuel 17:37

David used yesterday's testimony to confront today's giant.

Child of God, remember!

The God who helped you before has not changed.

The God who made a way before can make another way.

The God who sustained you yesterday is still God today.

Do not allow today's fear to erase yesterday's testimony.

2. FEAR MAGNIFIES THE PROBLEM AND MINIMISES GOD

The ten spies said:

"We saw the giants..."

They described the people as strong.

They described the cities as fortified.

They described themselves as grasshoppers.

Numbers 13:33 says:

"And there we saw the giants... and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

Notice something important.

They never said, "God is small."

But their report made it sound as if God was irrelevant.

This is what fear does.

Fear does not necessarily deny God's existence.

It simply makes your problem more important than God in your thinking.

The giants became bigger than the promise.

The walls became bigger than God's power.

Their weakness became bigger than God's strength.

And eventually, their fear became bigger than their faith.

Fear changes your perspective.

The same land that God called "a land flowing with milk and honey" became, in their report, a place that would devour them.

The same people God had promised to give into their hands became "giants".

The same Israelites who had walked through the Red Sea began to see themselves as helpless grasshoppers.

Nothing had changed about God.

What changed was their perspective.

Fear changes what you see.

Faith changes what you see.

Fear says:

"Look at the giant."

Faith says:

"Look at God."

3. FEAR MAKES YOU TALK YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR PROMISE

Numbers 13:32 says:

"The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof."

This was an exaggerated conclusion produced by fear.

The land was fruitful.

They had brought evidence of its fruitfulness.

But fear made them interpret the promise as a threat.

This is one of the most dangerous effects of fear.

Fear can make you reject the very thing you prayed for.

You can stand at the door of your breakthrough and become afraid of entering.

You can pray for a new opportunity and then become afraid when the opportunity arrives.

You can ask God to enlarge you and then become afraid when responsibility increases.

You can ask God for influence and then become afraid of the challenges that come with influence.

The Israelites wanted Canaan.

God gave them the opportunity to enter Canaan.

But when they saw the giants, they wanted to return to Egypt.

Fear can make slavery look safer than freedom.

Fear can make yesterday's bondage look better than tomorrow's promise.

Never allow fear to convince you that what God promised you is too dangerous to pursue.

There may be giants in your Canaan.

There may be battles.

There may be opposition.

But the presence of giants does not mean the absence of God.

4. FEAR MAKES YOU FORGET GOD'S WORD

God had already told Israel what He was going to do.

He had promised them the land.

Their assignment was not to determine whether God could fulfil His promise.

Their assignment was to possess what God had promised.

But when they saw the giants, they allowed what they saw to become more authoritative than what God had said.

This is the battle we face every day.

What God says versus what fear says.

God says:

"I am with you."

Fear says:

"You are alone."

God says:

"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Fear says:

"Nobody will help you."

God says:

"Be strong and of a good courage."

Fear says:

"You cannot do it."

God says:

"All things are possible to him that believeth."

Fear says:

"There is no way."

The question is:

Whose voice will you believe?

Your circumstances may speak loudly.

Your bank account may speak loudly.

The doctor's report may speak loudly.

People may speak loudly.

The enemy may speak loudly.

But God's Word must speak louder.

5. FEAR MAKES YOU SEE YOURSELF THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ENEMY

Numbers 13:33 says:

"We were in our own sight as grasshoppers."

This is very significant.

Before they said the giants saw them as grasshoppers, they first saw themselves as grasshoppers.

Their problem began with their self-perception.

They had forgotten who they were because they had forgotten whose they were.

They were God's people.

They were not ordinary slaves anymore.

They were a people redeemed by God.

But fear changed their identity in their own minds.

Instead of seeing themselves as people carrying God's promise, they saw themselves as helpless victims.

Fear can change your internal conversation.

You begin saying:

"I am not good enough."

"I cannot do it."

"I am too weak."

"I don't have what it takes."

"Others are better than me."

"There is no way I can succeed."

"I will fail."

But faith says:

"I may be weak, but my God is strong."

Faith does not deny weakness.

Faith simply refuses to make weakness the final word.

Paul said:

"When I am weak, then am I strong."
2 Corinthians 12:10

Your confidence is not supposed to come from the absence of weakness.

Your confidence comes from the presence of God.

6. FEAR CAN MAKE YOU FORGET THAT GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOUR GIANTS

There were twelve spies.

Ten came back with a fearful report.

Two came back with faith.

Joshua and Caleb saw the same land.

They saw the same giants.

They saw the same fortified cities.

They saw the same obstacles.

But they came to a completely different conclusion.

Caleb said:

"Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it."
Numbers 13:30

What made Caleb different?

Caleb did not have different eyes.

He had a different perspective.

The ten spies looked at Canaan through the eyes of fear.

Joshua and Caleb looked at Canaan through the eyes of faith.

The ten spies said:

"We cannot."

Caleb said:

"We are well able."

The ten spies said:

"They are stronger than us."

Caleb remembered that God was stronger than them.

Your giant may be big, but your God is bigger.

The problem may be real.

The opposition may be real.

The difficulty may be real.

But God is more real.

Never measure your God by the size of your problem.

Measure your problem by the greatness of your God.

7. REMEMBERING GOD BUILDS COURAGE

One of the best ways to defeat fear is to deliberately remember God.

Remember His faithfulness.

Remember His promises.

Remember His protection.

Remember His provision.

Remember answered prayers.

Remember the doors He opened.

Remember the battles He helped you win.

Remember the times when you thought there was no way, yet God made a way.

Psalm 103:2 says:

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

David understood that the soul needs to be reminded.

Sometimes you need to preach to yourself.

Tell yourself:

"Soul, remember what God has done."

"Remember the prayers He answered."

"Remember the doors He opened."

"Remember the battles He brought you through."

"Remember that God is still faithful."

When fear says, "You are finished," remind yourself:

"God has not finished with me."

When fear says, "There is no way," remind yourself:

"God specialises in making a way where there seems to be no way."

When fear says, "You cannot," remind yourself:

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

8. DON'T LET FEAR MAKE YOU RETURN TO EGYPT

The saddest thing about Israel's fear was that it made them desire Egypt again.

Egypt represented bondage.

Yet fear made bondage look attractive.

This is what fear can do.

When you are afraid of the future, you may begin romanticising the past.

You start saying:

"Maybe I should go back."

"Maybe things were better before."

"Maybe I should stop trying."

"Maybe I should give up."

But Egypt was never God's destination for Israel.

Canaan was.

Don't return to what God delivered you from simply because you are afraid of what lies ahead.

There may be giants in front of you, but there is also a promise in front of you.

There may be battles ahead, but God is ahead of you.

There may be challenges, but His presence is greater than the challenge.

Don't allow fear to send you backwards when God is calling you forward.

CONCLUSION

The tragedy of Numbers 13 was not that Israel encountered giants.

The tragedy was that they encountered giants and forgot God.

The giants did not suddenly appear.

God knew they were there.

God knew about the fortified cities.

God knew about the powerful inhabitants.

God knew about everything waiting for them in Canaan.

Yet He still said:

"Go and possess the land."

That means God does not promise us a life without challenges.

He promises us His presence in the midst of them.

The question is not:

"Are there giants?"

Yes, there are giants.

The question is:

"Who is with you?"

And the answer is:

God is with you.

So when fear comes, remember.

When the report is bad, remember.

When the door looks impossible, remember.

When you feel weak, remember.

When everyone around you is saying, "We cannot", remember what God has said.

Remember His faithfulness.

Remember His power.

Remember His promises.

Remember His presence.

Remember what He has already done.

And most importantly:

REMEMBER GOD.

Because when you remember God, the giant comes back to its proper size.

When you remember God, fear loses its voice.

When you remember God, faith rises again.

When you remember God, you can face what is ahead.

The giants may be in your Canaan, but God is already there.