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| Numbers 13:32-33 |
We were like grasshoppers in our own sight,and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33).
Ron Mehl used to say, “If it isn’t over your head, it is probably not God.” His point was God does not call us to things we can do in our own strength and ability. He calls us to things which drive us to our knees knowing our desperate need for God’s help and intervention.
Whenever we consider a God-size task and look to our own skills, we will be like the spies Joshua sent out to gather intel on the Promised land. Joshua and Caleb gave a good report but they were outnumbered by the ten who gave a bad report, “we were like grasshoppers in our own sight.” They convinced Israel they could not go in and possess the Promised Land even if God was the One who had promised it. As if their weakness was more powerful than God’s ability to deliver.
They were right in a way. When we look to ourselves and realize our utter lack of ability to fulfill what God has called us to we, like the Israelites, will not even try. We will form a committee to agree with us and vote to not trust in God’s provision for what He has called us to. We will believe more in what we can see, then we will walk away never knowing the victory which awaits us just beyond our yes.
Jesus said, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14). The many who chose not to enter the Promised Land at God’s invitation all died in the desert. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones to live to see the day when Israel crossed over the Jordan on dry ground, marched around the walls of Jericho and watched them fall, and many other God-size events as they stepped forward in the Promise.
Where the majority looks through a lens of self-doubt having faith in their own inability, be like Joshua and Caleb and look through the lens of faith in what God can do. Be one of the few willing to walk through the narrow gate, the one which challenges you the most. Don’t let anything hold you back from what God has called you to.
God will not call you to anything for which He will not equip you. Like the latter Israelites who walked through the Jordan River on dry ground, He will make a way for you where there seemed to be no way. All they had to do was take one step of obedient faith and the road through the river appeared.
What about you? What step of faithful obedience is God inviting you to take today? Will you turn your eyes from your inability and look faith-fully upon His ability to see you through? Take His hand and let Him lead you on a God-size adventure today.