Faith, Giants, and Opportunity

"we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers..." (Numbers 13:33)

God had brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and led them to the edge of the Promised Land.
He told Moses to send some visionaries into the land to see what He was preparing to give them. He promised them a wonderful life in Canaan. Twelve men, potential visionary leaders, were sent ahead to come back and tell the people about the promise of God.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever noticed how many times something good that God has promised requires either overcoming giants or overtaking a mountain? God has said in His word, (Heb. 11:6) that we cannot please Him without faith. Faith requires attempting things that require us to depend on God. If it was easy, it wouldn't require faith. Faith is not blind presumption, but absolute dependence on God's promise.

The men sent to spy out Canaan and came back and said, "the land is everything that God has promised. But we discovered something God forgot to mention. There are giants there. And when we looked at them, in our own eyes we saw ourselves as grasshoppers." Faith is not trusting in what we can do. Faith does not depend on us being able to overcome the giants in our own strength. Faith requires us depending only on God. Faith understands the giants might be bigger than we are, but they are not bigger than God.

Promised land living requires that we trust God, no matter how great the obstacles in our way. Ten spies brought a bad report and brought shame to God's people. Two men were men of faith. The majority is often, maybe most often, wrong. God's people are never encouraged to live by voting a majority opinion in the Bible. They are always challenged to follow the Word of God. God is the only majority that matters.

Have a blessed day.