Kudo’s to Pastor Bob Gass and his writing staff for bringing such important messages each morning in their devotion book, The Word For You Today! It inspired these thoughts I want to share with you today.
I love the fact that, you may not even believe in God, but… the wisdom of the Bible can still guide your life. I find so much practical advise throughout the Word of God. The devotional this morning focused on a story from the Old Testament book of Numbers. It is a powerful testimony to the way that our self image (how we see ourselves!) can impact how we see the world… and, ultimately, how much success we enjoy in our endeavors. If you want to check out the full story, it’s found in Numbers, chapter 13. The verse that I want to focus on is verse 33. Let me give you some background.
Moses had sent out some men to scout the land (today it’s Israel) in preparing to cross the Jordan river and settle there. Moses wanted to get the “lay of the land.” The 12 scouts that he sends out returned after exploring the land and this was their report: “We saw giants. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes…” Welllllllllll… that was the report of 10 of the 12 scouts. Two of them, by the names of Joshua and Caleb, were adamant that the Israelites should “go up and take the land that God has promised us.” Joshua and Caleb saw the same giants (there really were giants in the land!) but believed that with God’s help they could defeat them. Guess which report the people chose to believe???!!! If you guesses the naysayers, you are right!
Stinkin’ thinking leads to a rotting away of our self confidence. And a lack of self confidence is a major factor in explaining why so many of us fail at achieving important goals that we want to accomplish. Joshua and Caleb had a winning attitude. They spoke life. They spoke the language of a winner.
The words that we speak are a result of the thoughts that we have. Our words create our feelings and generate our actions. If our action is that of “running away” in times of stress (giving up!), it’s root cause started with stinkin’ thinking.
We can interrupt (and change) this process by speaking life to ourselves. As a Believer, I constantly have to remind myself of how much the Lord loves me and wants to help me. He believes in me so I need to believe Him. Jesus is my source of strength. What’s yours??!!!
