Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the LORD means safety. Prov. 29:25 (NLT)
We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers. Num. 13:33 (NLT)
God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. Isa. 40:22 (NLT)
Heavenly Father, there are days—even long seasons, when people gain more power over our hearts than they deserve. As Moses wrote, some people make us feel like “grasshoppers in the presence of giants.” When this happens, any of a number of broken relational styles results. When people seem bigger than you, it’s impossible for us to love them well. Grant us grace; set us free.
Through the power of the gospel, help us take back the power we’ve given people to shame us, shape us, and shut us down. No one deserves that much power over our hearts. If we’re going to feel “grasshopper-sized” anywhere in life, it should only be before you, for you are God and people are not. The good news is, in Christ, we are your “beloved grasshoppers”—safe, not threatened; cared for, not used; cherished, not shamed.
Father, help us take back the power we’ve given certain people to “fill us up,” “complete us,” or, functionally, to replace You. Whether it’s our spouse or children, friends or strangers, people we work for or people who work for us, those we envy or those we lust after—mere men make lousy idols, breathless gods, and salvation-less saviors.
You’ve placed a Jesus-shaped void in our hearts only Jesus can fill. Keep us restless until we rest in him; peace-less, until he is our peace; and longing, until Jesus is our life. So very Amen we pray, in his glorious and grace-full name.
