Did anyone else grow up watching The Prince of Egypt!? Still to this day, even after Bible College and studying abroad in Israel, I picture Moses and the exodus with the same cartoon characters and music. The Exodus. The story of how God saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, taking them on a long journey to the Promised Land. (Long journey because of Israel’s constant rebellion.) FINALLY, when they were close to the Promised Land, they sent out spies to check it out—to see what this land was really like, and to get a game plan of how they were going to take it over. They were gone for 40 days, and came back with the news that indeed it was a great land- a land flowing with milk and honey. (Which, if you’re like me, lactose intolerant, milk may not tickle your fancy. Let’s say it’s a land flowing with chocolate and French press coffee—now we’re talking!) However, the spies saw the men dwelling in the land—they were huge. Fierce. And they were scared.
There’s no way we could take over that land—there’s mighty men all over the place. It’s like MMA fighters in the UFC Ultimate Fighter Club vs. us little guys. NO THANKS.
(I have no idea what MMA and UFC are-that was Jeff. I just asked for the toughest guys that fight—apparently that’s them! So girls- if you want to impress a guy today, just throw those two terms into your conversation. Your welcome in advance.)
Word got around. People cried out. Complained. Whined. Gave up.
Why didn’t God just leave us in Egypt? He brought us here to die. Our children will be victims. Let’s get a new leader and head back to Egypt.
Voice of reason here: Hello! You just spent years and years traveling from Egypt to come to this awesome land. Remember how miserable Egypt was? You were slaves. NO FREEDOM. Oppressed. Abused. Overworked.
Ahem. Okay.
And then Caleb and Joshua, two spies that had gone with the others, tear their clothes in grief at the Israelites lack of faith and proclaim,
“This is good land; a great land. If God delights in us, then He will give it to us. Don’t go against God, and don’t fear the people. They’re nothing. We’ll eat them up with God’s help. They have no protection—but we—we have God. He is with us. Let’s go!”
But they didn’t listen to them. They picked up stones and started to hurl them their way.
The spies saw the mightiness of the people in the land, and became terrified. Instead of looking to their Almighty God and remembering what He has done for them, they kept their eyes fixed on the situation at hand and gave up. They threw in the towel. They didn’t even consider the Lord.
How many times have I done the same? How many times in the past have I forgotten about all that the Lord has done—in my life, in the bible, in other’s lives—and given up? Let my circumstances rule my actions, instead of the Lord? Just yesterday I was doing this very thing. I was letting my fear of man, my fear of failing and having people not approve of me, pull me down. I was looking to them, trembling in my boots—getting frozen in my fear—instead of looking to God and thanking Him for all that He’s done, is doing and will do. I was forgetting about my Mighty God who is able to move mountains. My God who arms me with strength and carries me through in whatever He calls me to.
When we read about this in the bible it seems so ridiculous. I read it and think, “Hello—how can you guys forget!? God has led you all this way. He’s not going to throw you to the wolves! He is for you Israel!”
And yet, I’m just like them.
I want to be like Caleb and Joshua. They saw the situation, yes, but it didn’t faze them. Why? Because they knew their God. They remembered their God. They trusted in their God.
They had faith. They preached truth to themselves, and to the others. They knew that the Lord was with them—they had nothing to fear. They chose to not fear, and chose to trust.
Let’s stand strong like Caleb and Joshua today. Let’s fight for faith. Let’s put our hope in Him. It takes work—much more than just giving into our fear, but oh how sweet it is. And the sweet promise is that we are not alone. The Spirit lives in us—we have only to be willing and press forward.
Do you tend to look at the situation more than at your God? Do you let your fear take over, instead of preaching truth to yourself of who God is? How can you remember who God is in whatever situation you’re facing today?
Amen! I love your posts, Alyssa. They’re conversational, real, and spot-on. Thank you. 🙂
Thank you!
Hello Alyssa, thank you for posting this, i follow your articles quite closely i must admit, they really encourage me to not let go of the hands of Jesus. And i was once watching the Questions and Answers you did with Jeff on Youtube and it really changed something in me, when you said “you are going to be tempted so don’t be surprised but it is how you are gonna deal with it and thats what gives God glory”. Since i heard that, i have stopped reacting in my flesh because i realize that God’s glory is at stake in everything i do. Thanks again, be blessed. i am grateful that your blog is a blessing to each and everyone of us 🙂
That’s exactly what I need to read today! Thanks!
Wow. You have no idea how this is exactly what I needed to read and what the Lord just reminded me of. He cares for us so dearly, how can we forget this truth so easily ?!.
Alyssa,
I’m always looking forward for your blogs. God uses you in such a special way. I pray so he puts in your mind words of wisdom to keep sharing.
It’s nice to see how I can relate with every single one of your blogs.
May the Lord bless you.
Thanks,
Laura
Completely needed to read this today. I let my emotions overwhelm me in situations and forget that God is ruler of my universe and ruler of my life. He is there to take care of me, embrace me and love me.
Dear Alyssa,
You are blessed and grateful! Your blogs makes me stop and think each time (:
Yes, It’s hard for me to remember God in the first place rather I just look into situation and fear. I’m very shy and new with our God, I’m taking steps of getting closer with him. I recently moved to another country, since God gave me the chance to be brave and act (like you talked about in the last blog post). But I lack of experience and lots of skills and I fear, that I wont be able to survive, find a job, earn living. But in the end of the day I know that God is with me and he’ll show me the way, that he’ll help me and support me. So I trust in his plans. Its hard to put God first when you’re facing the situation of fear, but I try to remember him as much as I can. May God stay with you (: Lots of love, Erika :>
This is exactly what I need to hear right now. Not to put a morbid spin on such a lovely blog.. But on Saturday a 12 year old girl from our church drowned two weeks after the 1 year anniversary of her father’s death, leaving her single mum and her 16 year old brother. While it’s an absolutely awful situation and, honestly, no words can explain the pain they are going through, I still chose to focus on the devastating effect that it’s had on us all. When in fact, her older brother has lent on Jesus so much more and has grow more intimate with Him, the church as a whole has grown closer together through all the pray that is going on, and Jesus is just managing to redeem the situation for His glory in so many ways. Just through remember simple truths like “God is good” and “God is love” and by having faith in Him and drawing completely on His strength, it’s helped the whole community to be able to be strong for the family in their time of mourning. This was just such an encouraging and lovely blog to read especially with everything going on right now. Thank you Alyssa for being a constant blessing to so many women!
Thanks for sharing Lucy!
It’s amazing how easily we forget! I got this same revelation after reading that story and quickly fell back into my normal routine. This was an awesome reminder! God is soooo for us!!!!
Mrs. Bethke!
“Let’s fight for faith,” is probably my favorite part. Often, the reason why we struggle to overcome situations is because we disregard the fact that we may not have faith at all. Or that our very own faith may be “descending” or lessening because of how big we see a situation. In order to fight through a situation and fully depend on God, we have to have a victorious battle to remain our faith –especially during tough situations.
Thank you for this reminder, Alyssa. I look forward to your future postings, as well as your potential bible studies!
YOU, women, are a wonderful writer.
if you wrote a book, i would absolutely purchase one, and one for each of my friends. you are absolutely on fire in all the right ways.
Bless you for being obedient to God!
Thank you Hannah! That is so sweet!!! And I am writing a book 🙂
Thanks posting this. It totally meets me where I am right now. Whenever God does something awesome in my life, I write it down, so that in times like these, when I’m shaking in my boots, I can go back and read about it so I can remember how awesome and powerful my God is.