11-24-2014

Good Morning All,

          Numbers 13:30; “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.”

      Our verse is part of an amazing story.  12 spies from the Israelites crossed over the Jordan to study their soon to be opponents.  These spies checked out the cities, the land and the people of Canaan; the land that God had promised them.  The spies saw it.  They saw fertile land, bountiful vineyards, large cities and people that they described as giants.  They returned and gave their report to Moses and the Children of Israel. 

    Ten of the spies went on and on about how they could never conquer this land or this people.  “We will die by the sword.”  They looked and saw the giants and knew they could never succeed.  There were two, however; who took a different view.  Two men, named Caleb and Joshua, told a different tale.

    Caleb and Joshua both said they should conquer the land.  They spoke of the fertile land; the bounty of the land was amazing; they spoke of the cities and the people who inhabited the land.  They saw the people as giants but they focused, not on the size of the task but on the size of God. 

   How do you face challenges?  Do you look at the size of the “giants” or do you look at the size of God?  It is easy to be overwhelmed by the size of the “giants” in our life.  Health issues look huge, financial strains can look humongous, cracks in a relationship can look gigantic.  The size of the troubles can be immense.  There is no denying it, even Caleb and Joshua in our story didn’t deny the size of the “giants” in Canaan.  We can look at the size of the struggles that this life will throw at us and realize that they are big; definitely bigger than we can handle on our own.  That is what the other ten spies did.  They looked at the size of the “giants” and could see no way for them to win against these great cities, armies of these “giants.”

    But Caleb and Joshua didn’t look at the size of the giants; they looked at the size of God and the promise that he had made to them.  Caleb and Joshua had faith that God was bigger than the giants that they were to face and trusted God to deliver them.  They knew that God was faithful to his promises; they had witnessed this throughout their entire life.  They trusted God and we should as well.

    God is faithful to his promises and he has promised to love you, to redeem you, to protect you from all harm that the devil will throw at you and he has promised to be with you every step of the way.  God is with us, giving us comfort and hope until we are reunited with him in his glorious kingdom.

Father, give me the strength to know that you have destroyed my giants.  Keep me safe in your holy kingdom.  Hold me in your arms.  Be with those who are facing their own giants at this time.  Send your Spirit of comfort and hope that they may be calmed by your grace and they may know your peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret