Scary Things … Trust or Doubt?

“There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”  (Numbers 13:33)

Imagination and creativity are wonderful blessings that the Creator of this universe and all that is therein has blessed us with.  Without doubt there are some who have the ability to envision, create, design and come up with ideas, concepts, discoveries that most of us would have never even thought of.

But just as it is with every other blessing that our God bestows upon us, there is a corresponding responsibility to use any blessing or talent wisely.  There is no exception to that principle!

Found in the Old Testament are the accounts of how God’s people acted, reacted and chose to obey or disobey God’s instructions.  The apostle Paul reminds us of the preservation of these examples that we might learn from them (See 1 Corinthians 10:11, 12).

These twelve spies that were selected and then instructed to go and spy out the Land of Promise they had been looking forward to reaching, left the camp.  With their orders they proceeded to explore the Promised Land to find out about the nations who lived there and just how strong they were in numbers and fortification.  They were to also evaluate the quality of the land that was to be theirs and the produce and vegetation that existed there!

After forty days these twelve men returned with the report of what they had learned.  All twelve of these men saw the same land and the same things.  But the problem was they came back with two very different conclusions.

Joshua and Caleb declared “We are well able to overcome it.”  The other ten declared “We are not able because the people there are of great size!”

All agreed on the abundance of food and resources to be found there.  Joshua and Caleb didn’t deny the existence of giants living there.  The problem was the ten spies felt like “grasshoppers” compared to them.

Now, we’ve lived in Texas a long time and I have seen more than my share of grasshoppers, but never any as large as they imagined.  Perspective always plays a part in the decisions of life.

The men of Canaan may have been large … even bigger in size than the men of Israel … but they were no match for God’s people who would have enough faith and trust in Jehovah to do just as He instructed them to do!

There is absolutely no problem, circumstance or situation that is too big for us to face if we strive every day of our lives to be stronger in faith than we were the day before!

Facing the scary things of life … health issues of one’s self or one that we love … financial issues … fears … doubtings … uncertainties … we all have ‘giants in the land’ of our lives and we must ask the Lord … even as His apostles did … “Lord, increase our faith!”(Luke 17:5)

Yes … and then with a living and active faith we can join with Caleb when he proclaimed unashamedly, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30)

 

Bill Fairchild, Jr.

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