Insurmountable

Have you ever been in a situation where the odds were stacked against you?

What did you do?  Did you give up?

Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we." So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.  - Numbers 13:31-32

In today's reading from Numbers, the Israelites hear that that the enemy is too strong and they will fail.

This is not encouraging.  I fact, it is downright depressing.  It sends them into a frenzy and they begin cursing Moses and questioning God.  They lose faith.

Panic makes obstacles seem insurmountable, and the report from the spies sent into the camp of the enemy created a panic.

When the people turn against God, God gets angry and threatens to destroy them all.  Which was worse, the strength and power of the enemy, or what God could do to them?

If they had faith in God, they would have believed He would save them.  Instead, they provoked Him against them.

When we walk with God, we may encounter difficulties, and there could be danger, but walking away from God is worse.

We may not realize that is what we are doing when we let fear keep us from doing what we know is right.  It could be something simple like reaching out to help someone in need, or visiting a sick friend.

No obstacle is insurmountable with God.  We may not see a solution, or we may have serious doubts that one can be reached, but there is always a way if we have faith in God.

But even when we believe that completely, we can begin to develop doubts.  Time passes and nothing happens.  On our Kairos (prison ministry) weekends, we learn to approach life accepting that things will come, not in our time, but in God's time.  With persistent faith and patience it will come to be.

For the Israelites, they will not see the glory of the land God promised.  Their decision to turn away from Him cost them that.  Instead, the promise will be fulfilled in the next generation.

So it may be for us.  We may be doing the hard work for those who follow us.  But if we have faith in God and listen to Him, we too will see the glory.  The victories will be ours.

The choice is ours also.

So, when the obstacle is insurmountable, I turn to God and seek His help.  Through Him all things are possible.

More to come...