There is a story in the Bible in which God made and gave a promise to His people, the Israelites, that they would possess a land of their own for many years they have been slaves in a foreign land. It was a promise for their families. It was a promise that was theirs to claim.

So when God freed them from slavery, they went on to a journey going to the land that was promised to be nothing that they have ever seen before. And when they were close to it, God had some final instructions, and one of them was that they needed to scout the land first and so they did.

“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel…” Numbers 13:2

There were twelve spies who went and two of them were Joshua and Caleb. After they scouted the land, most of them gave a bad report but Caleb did not.

Caleb: “…let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Numbers 13:30

The Other Spies: “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Numbers 13:32

Caleb was ready to occupy the land but the others were not. Caleb was ready to claim the promise but others were not. Why?

It was because the others saw the giants, but Caleb saw the promise. The other spies saw themselves and saw how small and weak they were. But Caleb saw the bigness of God and His promise for them.

What they saw made a difference, but what they believed about what they saw was the game changer.

Caleb for sure also saw the giants in the land but somehow, he manage to see beyond what he was seeing. He somehow chose to focus more on what God has promised they will receive. That even though he also saw the giants in the land, he somehow believed that they were no match to what God can do for them.

So, the question is, whatever God has promised that you will receive, would you rather choose to focus on the giants that you see, or would you focus on a God who can slay the giants in the land He has promised that you will possess?

God was pleased with Caleb.

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Numbers 14:24

As a result, Caleb was able to live to see the promise fulfilled.

And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord. Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive. 

If you focus only on the giants that you see, it could kill everything you have. But if you choose to focus on God, He would make you more alive than ever before.