They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
Numbers 13:26-33
During 2026, Peachtree Church is inviting everyone into Cultivate, a churchwide discipleship plan centered on the fruit of the Spirit and the kind of life God longs to grow in us. Throughout the year, we’ll explore how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control take shape in everyday life through the Spirit’s work. Cultivate brings together worship, Scripture, group guides, and meaningful practices designed to meet you where you are and support growth in ways that fit your season. These twice-weekly devotionals are one way to stay connected, offering reflection and grounding for daily life with God. Whether you engage in many ways or just one, you’re invited to be part of this shared journey of becoming more rooted in who God has created and called you to be.
Devotional
Right after Christmas, our family went on a quick trip to North Carolina, and as part of that trip, we spent an afternoon on a ropes course and zip-lining adventure, which is one of our son, Whit’s, favorite things to do. He and I were moving at full speed through the course, with the only holdup when we ran into an equipment issue, as the safety harnesses had an absolutely ingenious setup that ensured that children as young as Whit could be relatively independent and safe on the obstacles. At one point during our time, we could hear another child and her mother, and the young lady began to give in to a fear of heights and couldn’t go any further.
The child wasn’t incapable of moving through the obstacle, which was a fairly simple set of balance beams about 20 feet high, with ropes that could be used as balance points at distances appropriate for kids, always providing an extra point of contact. She had simply looked down and decided that she could not move forward. In this passage from Numbers, the Israelite scouts whom Moses sent to investigate the Promised Land look at the descendants of Anak—who, according to the understanding of the time, were believed to be descended from the intermarriage of fallen angels and humans—and panic. The actions of these explorers and the kid on the ropes course were the same, though on a different scale.
Rarely do we, in our lives, face moments where we must face down the giants of the world, though an occasional bully might need to be stared down, but we all have those spots in our existence where we must face obstacles that we deem insurmountable and must face our fears. These are the moments that can be most difficult for many of us, as we know that our fears are not grounded in reality, even while they grow ever larger before us. The reason behind their growth is simply that, as our worries grow, our ability to focus on the presence of the Lord steadily diminishes. These moments can almost seem as though we have a cup that can only be filled with either the presence of God or our fears, and as our fears grow larger, they push Him out ever more. The challenge that we all face is how we handle our fears, which we will look at in more detail on Wednesday.
For Reflection
- What are you afraid of?
- Where have you overcome fears in your life?
- What has helped you do so?
Prayer
Gracious God, you have created us to put our faith in you, to be able to trust you with all that we are, with all that we might be, yet all too often in our lives, we allow fear to raise its head. In these moments, help us to look to you. Help us to see your face shining down upon us and to listen to your Holy Spirit guide us from fear into faith. In Jesus’ name we pray; amen.
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