Slaying Giants: The Giant Within
A 5-Day Devotional Series
MONDAY — Foundation Day
DEVOTIONAL TITLE: The Giant You Never Saw Coming
EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: The giant you never expected (it's closer than you think)
META DESCRIPTION: We spend so much energy fighting giants outside us — but what if the biggest one lives within? This week, we explore the giant of self.
Monday — Foundation Day
What if the greatest obstacle standing between you and the life God has for you isn't out there — it's in here?
Today's Scripture: "Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them." — Joshua 7:11
Reflection:
Israel had just watched God do the impossible. The Jordan River parted. The walls of Jericho fell flat. They were undefeated, unstoppable — until they weren't.
When they marched against the small village of Ai, something went terribly wrong. Thirty-six men died. The army ran home in retreat. And Joshua fell on his face before God, bewildered, asking the question we all ask when life suddenly stops making sense: God, how does this fit with what you told us you were doing?
God's answer stopped Joshua cold. The problem wasn't Ai. The problem wasn't the battle plan. The problem was inside the camp.
Hidden beneath a soldier's tent was a stolen robe, some silver, and a bar of gold — things God had explicitly said were off-limits. One man named Achan had seen something he wanted, decided God's rules didn't apply to him, taken it, and buried it.
And it cost everyone.
This week, we're sitting with an uncomfortable truth: the giant that most threatens what God wants to do in our lives isn't the obstacle in front of us. It's the desire inside us to be lord of ourselves — to decide what's mine, what rules apply to me, and what I get to keep.
Today's Application: Spend a few quiet minutes today asking God this honest question: Is there something I've picked up that you told me to leave behind?
A Closing Thought: God didn't expose Achan's sin to shame him — He exposed it to free His people. The same is true for you today.
TEXT MESSAGE TEASER: We look for giants in all the wrong places. Monday's devotional reveals where the real battle is. Read today's devotional: [LINK]
TUESDAY — Challenge Day
DEVOTIONAL TITLE: Why We Hide What's Killing Us
EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: Why do we keep hiding the thing that's hurting us?
META DESCRIPTION: Achan buried his sin under the tent. We do the same thing. Today's devotional honestly explores why we hide — and why it never works.
Tuesday — Challenge Day
Have you ever held onto something you knew wasn't good for you — not because you forgot it was there, but because some part of you still wanted it?
Today's Scripture: "Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." — James 1:15
Reflection:
Yesterday we met Achan. Today, let's be honest — we are Achan.
When Achan described what happened, he gave us a painfully familiar sequence: I saw. I coveted. I took. I hid. It's the same pattern Eve followed in the garden. The same one David followed on the rooftop. And if we're being really honest, the same one we follow more often than we'd like to admit.
James makes it uncomfortably personal. He doesn't say their desire or his desire. He says each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. The hook on the outside catches something on the inside.
Here's what makes this so hard: we don't usually start by stealing an army's worth of treasure. Achan took a coat, some coins, and a bar of gold — small enough to bury under his tent. The sin we bury doesn't stay the same size we buried it. It grows.
And yet we keep hiding. Why? Because we want to keep what we've taken. We hide what we're not willing to release.
But here's the thing about hiding from God — He already knows. He knew exactly where Achan's tent was before the investigation even began.
Today's Application: What are you working hard to keep hidden? Name it — even if only to yourself and God — and notice the relief that comes just from stopping the pretense.
A Closing Thought: You don't have to protect a sin that Jesus already died for. He already knows, and He's not waiting to condemn you — He's waiting to free you.
TEXT MESSAGE TEASER: We hide what we're not ready to release. But what's it costing us? Tuesday's devotional gets honest. Read today's devotional: [LINK]
WEDNESDAY — Application Day
DEVOTIONAL TITLE: Finding Your Nail (And Letting It Go)
EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: Is there a nail you're keeping from Jesus?
META DESCRIPTION: What's the one area you keep telling Jesus is yours? Today's devotional offers practical steps to surrender the "nails" we hold back from God.
Wednesday — Application Day
Imagine buying a house at half price with one strange condition: one nail above the fireplace belongs to the previous owner. He can hang whatever he wants on it, whenever he wants. You'd think — it's just a nail. What's the big deal?
Today's Scripture: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." — 1 John 1:9
Reflection:
A nail seems like nothing. Until a rotting, decaying animal is hanging from it in the middle of your home — and you can't touch it. Before long, you abandon the whole house just to escape the smell.
We do this with Jesus all the time. Jesus, you can have my Sundays, my relationships, my future — just not this. This part is mine.
But one reserved place still says, I get the final word here. And that one nail — that one hidden thing — has a way of affecting everything around it.
So what do you actually do with this?
Three practical steps for today:
1. Name your nail. You probably already know what it is. The thing you've been circling around all week. Write it down somewhere private if it helps make it real.
2. Confess it. First John 1:9 isn't a warning — it's an invitation. Confession isn't about informing God of something He doesn't know. It's about agreeing with Him about what's true, and opening your hands.
3. Release it. Achan buried his sin because he wanted to keep it. Releasing it means choosing, even today, not to go back and dig it up.
Today's Application: Take a literal moment today — even 60 seconds — to pray: God, examine me. Is there a nail I'm holding back from you?
A Closing Thought: You don't have to keep pretending the thing under the tent isn't there. Jesus already knows — and He's already paid for it.
TEXT MESSAGE TEASER: One nail. One hidden thing. It's affecting more than you think. Wednesday's devotional shows what to do. Read today's devotional: [LINK]
THURSDAY — Testimony Day
DEVOTIONAL TITLE: When "I" Finally Becomes "Christ In Me"
EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: The moment everything changed for Paul (and can for you)
META DESCRIPTION: Paul knew the war inside himself better than anyone — and he found the only answer that actually works. Today's devotional shows what that looks like.
Thursday — Testimony Day
What do you do when you're the problem you can't solve?
Today's Scripture: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" — Romans 7:24–25
Reflection:
Paul wasn't writing Romans 7 about someone else. He wasn't pointing at Achan's tent from a safe distance. He was writing about himself — one of the most devoted, disciplined, theologically brilliant men in the early church — and he was saying: I do what I don't want to do. I don't do what I know I should. The war is real, and it's inside me.
If Paul felt that way, you're in good company.
But notice what Paul doesn't ask. He doesn't say, How do I fix myself? He doesn't ask, How do I become a better version of me? He asks, Who will deliver me?
Because if I am the giant, I cannot defeat myself with more of myself.
And then, in the very next breath, everything changes: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Later, Paul puts it even more plainly in Galatians: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
The whole problem we've traced this week — I saw, I desired, I took, I hid — finds its answer in a single shift: It is no longer I. Not self-improvement. Not trying harder. A cross and an empty grave.
This is what transformation actually looks like: not the absence of the struggle, but the presence of a Savior who is greater than the struggle.
Today's Application: Where are you still trying to fix yourself with more of yourself? Today, practice handing that specific thing to Jesus — not as a one-time fix, but as a daily surrender.
A Closing Thought: The answer to the giant of self isn't becoming less giant-like through effort. The answer is Jesus — and He has never lost.
TEXT MESSAGE TEASER: Paul knew the war inside himself better than anyone. His answer will change how you see your own. Read today's devotional: [LINK]
FRIDAY — Forward Day
DEVOTIONAL TITLE: Examined, Sent, and On Mission
EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: You were put in someone's life for a reason
META DESCRIPTION: The giant of self doesn't just affect us — it affects our mission. Friday's devotional sends you into the weekend with purpose and a name to pray for.
Friday — Forward Day
This week, we've been looking inward. Today, we look outward — because what God does in us, He always intends to do through us.
Today's Scripture: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." — Luke 19:10
Reflection:
Achan's sin wasn't just a private matter. He was part of a people on a mission — and his hidden choices stopped the whole army in its tracks. Self-rule never completely stays to itself.
The same is true in reverse. When we surrender the giant within — when we stop hiding and start walking in the freedom Jesus offers — it doesn't just change us. It changes what God can do through us.
Jesus was clear about the mission He left behind: seek the lost, make disciples. He didn't leave us to guess. And He didn't leave us to do it alone.
As you head into the weekend, carry two things with you.
First, a prayer of examination: God, is there anything in me that's keeping me from being fully on mission with you? Examine me. Not to condemn — but to clear the way.
Second, a name. Think of one person in your life who needs to experience what you've been experiencing this week — the grace, the freedom, the truth that Jesus is greater than the giant within. Pray for them by name. Look for a moment to invite them in.
You were placed in that person's life on purpose. The mission isn't out there somewhere — it starts with the person two houses down, the coworker down the hall, the friend you've been meaning to call.
Today's Application: Write one name down. Pray for them this weekend. Then take one step — a text, a conversation, an invitation — to let them know they matter to you and to God.
A Closing Thought: You are not the savior — and what a relief that is. Jesus is. Go be the person He placed in someone's life, and trust Him to do what only He can do.
TEXT MESSAGE TEASER: God does something in you so He can do something through you. Friday's devotional sends you into the weekend on mission. Read today's devotional: [LINK]
Series Tags/Categories
Slaying Giants · Self & Surrender · Sin & Grace · Identity in Christ · Joshua Series
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