In Chapter 13 of Numbers, Moses sends in twelve spies to check out the land of Canaan, to find out what they would be facing when they moved into the land God had given to them. This took place not all that long after they left Egypt. When they came back, they told Moses that the land did, indeed, flow with milk and honey, but that the people who lived there were strong and their cities fortified.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”
Back in 1999, I wrote in the margin of my Bible the following question:
How often have I not taken possession of God’s promised land for me because the inhabitants seemed too big or too strong? Let me be like Caleb who said, “We shall surely overcome.”
I paused to reflect on that question and my desired answer. Jesus said that He came to give us an abundant life. That life is so much richer than any of us can comprehend. I’m convinced of that. He wants us to possess that abundant life He promised, no matter where we live or who we are or what circumstances we find ourselves in. When we understand the land we are meant to possess as followers of Christ, we should respond about the strong inhabitants and fortified cities: “I shall surely overcome!” After all, He has promised to never leave us or forsake us and to indwell us and empower us.
I’m praying that whatever strong inhabitants and fortified cities you’re facing, you’ll enter the land unafraid and prepared to overcome.
~robin
