When the Giant Starts Talking

By Pastor Justin Cooper

It usually starts with a phone call, a text, or a look on the doctor's face. Nothing has actually happened yet — but suddenly your chest is tight, your mind is running, and the whole rest of your day feels like it's tilting. You haven't lost anything. You've just heard the giant start talking. And that voice, all by itself, can freeze you.

That's exactly where an entire army found itself in 1 Samuel 17. Goliath hadn't thrown a single spear. He was just talking — big, loud, and daily. And the Bible says Saul and all Israel "were dismayed, and greatly afraid." Soldiers. With swords. Frozen. Not by a wound, but by a voice.

"Goliath's sword and his spear were not half as lethal as the fear that he invoked in the hearts of Saul and the army of Israel."

Here's what's freeing about the way Pastor Cooper preached it: he didn't scold anyone for being afraid. He said, plainly, "It is okay to feel fearful." Fear is a natural response — it comes in the package of being human. The problem isn't that the giant spoke and your heart raced. The problem comes when you let that voice move in and take over the house. As he put it, "it is not okay to let fear rule your life."

There's a reason for that. God, the Bible says, "hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). Feeling fear is being human. Being ruled by fear is living as though God left His throne — and He hasn't. The giant's voice is loud, but it is not the only voice in the field, and it does not get the final word.

This Monday:

Name the giant that's been talking to you. Say it out loud or write it down — the diagnosis, the bill, the empty chair, the "what if." Then answer it out loud with one true sentence about God: "God is still on His throne, and He is with me in this." You're not pretending the giant is quiet. You're just refusing to let his be the loudest voice you hear today.