“But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.’ Then the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.’ So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out,…” – Numbers 13:30-32, ESV
“…we are well able to overcome it…We are not able to go up against the people…”
Jesus, help me be on the side of Caleb and Joshua. We can do this. It is so easy (too easy) to see all the problems and impossibilities in an idea, dream, vision or proposal. Help me to factor you in and see the possibilities and opportunities and not the difficulties and problems.
Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land. Not to see if they were going to go in, but how they were going to go in. God had already promised to give it to them. That’s why it’s called “The Promised Land.”
An optimist sees a green next to every sand trap, while a pessimist sees a sand trap next to every green.
They all saw exactly the same thing. Two (Joshua and Caleb) believed the promises of God, saw the daunting circumstances and said, in essence, we can do this. Ten of them didn’t believe the promises of God and saw the daunting circumstances and said, in essence, we can’t do this.
The people sided with the ten and 600,000 men, plus women and children, missed God’s plan due to the negative report of the ten. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until everyone from that generation died, except Joshua and Caleb.
How much of what Jesus wants to do through you and me doesn’t happen because we say, “We can’t do this?” I want to be more like Caleb and Joshua than like the ten. I want to, by His grace, see His promises, character and faithfulness bigger than the daunting circumstances. I want to believe Him for the impossible, the improbable, the unlikely, the uncanny and the unusual!
“But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” – Matthew 19:26, ESV
“Jesus looked hard at them and said, ‘No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.’” – Matthew 19:26, The Message
Jesus, forgive me for the times I have seen the daunting problems and circumstances bigger than you, your character and your promises. Help me to truly believe that there is every chance in the world if I trust you to do what I fear and feel inadequate to do. Amen.
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