Devotionals

Giant Sized Challenges

by Anne Adams
08/11/25
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There were giants on the earth in those days …Genesis 6:4a (NKJV)

Giants in literature and folklore are usually depicted as oversized but also strong and undefeatable. However, many years ago there lived an actual "giant" who tragically was not only defeated but by an invisible miniscule enemy. His name was Robert Wadlow.

Born in 1918, Robert was average sized at birth but then he began to grow taller and taller - for example, at age 5 he was 5' 4". The issue was a glandular abnormality, and by the time he was fully grown he was over eight feet tall and because walking was so difficult he needed to wear leg braces.  

Once an adult, Wadlow first gained fame in 1935 by touring with a circus, though as himself, not in a sideshow. Then, two years later he began working for a shoe company, touring to promote their products and stores as the company also provided him with specially made shoes.  Then in 1940 at age 22 Robert developed a foot infection when a metal part of his ankle brace irritated his skin.  

Physicians treated him with a blood transfusion and even surgery, but at a time before antibiotics were commonly available tragically Robert succumbed. So in the end the tallest man in recorded history, a seemingly unbeatable giant, proved to be vulnerable to a tiny unseen creature – a germ. In short, something apparently immense and overwhelming succumbed to something seemingly smaller.

We probably won’t deal with an actual giant on our daily spiritual journey but sometimes the challenges and struggles we do encounter can seem just as oversized, insurmountable, and threatening. And also apprently unconquerable.  However, even such giant challenges can be confronted and conquered – by the smallest twinge of faith in the God who can overcome any problem.

Are you struggling with such a giant sized struggle? With God in control and faith in him, even the most insurmountable challenge can be reduced to the miniscule. For our benefit and his glory.