Monday, July 4: Numbers 13- FEAR.

Fear is a great debilitator! Fear sucks the strength and will power out of the best of us. Fear can and does keep us from doing the things God would have us do.

Israel stood on the threshold of the Promised Land. They had seen God do mighty miracles and keep them alive in the desert for over a year. A pillar of cloud and fire led them and watched over them by day and by night. They marched through the Red Sea with walls of water on their left and right. And yet, as the Promised Land stood for their taking, the leaders of the people dissolved in fear. “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” …  “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size…” (31-32).

The Egyptians were a strong and powerful people and yet God defeated them.  Could God not do the same with the people of the land?

Of course God could… but the people never gave God a chance to do what He promised He would do.

How often do I (do you) let fear keep us from doing something God has asked us to do? “But God, the job is too big… the people are too stubborn… the task is too, this, that or something else. Oh, God, I can’t… I’m scared…”

Fear is like sand in the oil tank; it can stop us from accomplishing the things God has set before us to do.

Do you believe God is calling you to do something particular? Is something keeping you from setting out to do it?

Ask yourself, has fear interrupted your following of God’s call?

I know that is the question I am asking myself today…

Oh. Lord, help me be honest with myself and with You. Help me to move forward in faith and to resist fear as I press into Your love for me and my responsive love for You. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.