Have you ever been to a carnival and stood in front of one of those funhouse mirrors? One makes you look a mile tall, and the next one makes you look a hundred pounds heavier. The crazy thing is, you didn't change at all. The only thing that changed was the lens you were looking through. It’s funny at a fair, but it’s exhausting in real life.
I think that’s exactly what fear does. Fear is a funhouse mirror for our problems. It takes a legitimate challenge—a health scare, a financial squeeze, a problem with our kids—and it distorts it, making it look impossibly huge and making us feel impossibly small.
But here’s the good news: God never intended for us to pray through that distorted lens. Paul told his mentee Timothy—and he's telling us today in 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV—"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
Did you catch that? Fear is a spirit, but it’s not from our God. When we let fear influence us, we're adopting the enemy's mindset of anxiety and defeat. But God has given us His mindset, which is one of power, love, and a sound mind that brings clarity, not chaos.
This isn't a new battle. In the book of Numbers, the people of Israel are right on the doorstep of the Promised Land. They can practically taste the victory! Moses sends in twelve spies to scout it out. They all go to the same land, see the same cities, and see the same people. But they come back with two totally different reports.
Ten of the spies come back with a funhouse mirror report. They say in Numbers 13, "We can't do it! The people are huge, the cities are like fortresses! We felt like grasshoppers, and that's what they thought of us, too!" Their report was 100% fear. It magnified the giants.
But two guys, Joshua and Caleb, smashed that mirror. They came back and said, "The land is amazing! Don't be afraid of them... the LORD is with us!" Come on! They didn't deny the giants were there; they just knew their God was bigger.
This whole story points us straight to Jesus. Jesus is our Joshua. He stood before the ultimate giant—sin and death itself. He didn't flinch. He didn't pray a grasshopper prayer in the garden; He prayed a "Your will be done" prayer. He walked to the cross, motivated by love for us and empowered by the Spirit, and He won the final victory. Because He defeated the biggest giant, we now have His Spirit—that spirit of power, love, and a sound mind—to face ours.
So, prayer warriors, here’s the challenge as we go to pray. What kind of report are you bringing to God? Are you praying "grasshopper prayers," endlessly describing the size of your giant? "Oh God, the bills are so big, the diagnosis is so bad, the conflict is so messy."
Or are you ready to start praying "God is with us prayers," declaring the size of your God over the giants in our lives?
As we head into our prayer time, let's focus on two things:
Self-Reflection: Take a moment and ask the Lord, "Am I praying through a lens of fear or a lens of faith?" Give that fear to Him and ask for His perspective—for that spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.
Pray for Others: Let's pray for others. Ask God to give every single person a "Joshua perspective" this week. Pray that we would smash the funhouse mirrors of fear in our lives and see our challenges through the truth of who God is.
Let's go to war declaring that our God is with us and He is greater than any giant we face.