Where is your faith?

How's your faith these days?   I ask that question today, just two days following the Christian celebration of Easter, when we pause to contemplate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.  If we are who we say we are, and if we really believe in God's scheme to redeem us through the blood of his Son, then our faith should be strong.

I sometimes look at God's people when they were slaves in Egypt, then delivered by the power of God  to make their way to the land of God's promise.  You would think these people who had personally witnessed God's faithfulness and God's power, would have no problem with matters of faith and trust.  But we hear their grumbling and complaining, and even some who were wishing they were back in Egypt. 

We don't have any problem being critical of the children of Israel, when their faith was weak, but in reality, we are so much like them.  We, too, have seen answers to prayer, lives changed by the gospel, and freedom from Satan's grasp, yet we often wrestle with a lack of faith. 

Remember when the spies were sent into the new land and ordered to come back with a report of their findings?  The story is found in Numbers 13.  When the spies returned, it was an almost unanimous agreement that reported, "we cannot take the land."  Their report was based on the fact they would be outnumbered, and not only that, their army appears to be comprised of giants.

I said the report was almost unanimous.  There was one name Caleb, who had another view.  He reported that victory was possible.  You need to read the whole story from the book of Numbers, but I want us to pause right here in the middle and look at the information we have thus far. 

The majority of the spies came back and reported what they saw.  Through their very eyes they had seen an army larger than their own.  They saw fighters that could be compared to giants.  In fear, and for their self-preservation, they reported the impossibility of being victorious in the battle.  Another thing they reported was about the land itself.  They claimed the land would "devour its inhabitants." These spies wanted nothing to do with such a battle that would obviously end in defeat. 

Their report stands out as a contradiction of their lives as God's people.  When God had promised them the land, it was described  as flowing with milk and honey.  Now the spies were  saying the land would devour its inhabitants.   My thought is to ask them, "Where is your faith?"

They had obviously viewed the land and its inhabitants through eyes and hearts that did not consider God's promise the land would be theirs.  Their victory would have been automatic, but they went on a mission for God without faith in God. 

The same thing happens to us when we attempt to do God's work in our world today without the faith that God will be with us every step of the way.  He continues to promise victory.  We sing about it all the time in the Christian song, "Faith is the Victory."

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