What do you do when God really is calling you to do something? It could be leading a new ministry. It could be making a phone call to someone you have not talked to in a long time. It could be forgiving someone and reaching out in love.
What do you do?
There is a great story about trusting God found in Numbers. It starts off with God telling Moses to send twelve leaders (Numbers 13):
The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, which I’m giving to the Israelites. Send one man from each ancestral tribe, each a chief among them. 3 So Moses sent them out from the Paran desert according to the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders among the Israelites.
What did they find there? It depends on who you ask.
21 They went up and explored the land from the Zin desert to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the arid southern plain and entered Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of the Anakites, lived. (Hebron was built seven years before Tanis in Egypt.) 23 Then they entered the Cluster ravine, cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and carried it on a pole between them. They also took pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Cluster ravine because of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites cut down from there.
Did you catch how large the cluster of grapes were? It was so big they had to carry it on a pole. There was great abundance in this land, the land promised to them by God.
So they come back and give their report.
25 They returned from exploring the land after forty days. 26 They went directly to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the Paran desert at Kadesh. They brought back a report to them and to the entire community and showed them the land’s fruit. 27 Then they gave their report: “We entered the land to which you sent us. It’s actually full of milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 There are, however, powerful people who live in the land. The cities have huge fortifications. And we even saw the descendants of the Anakites there. 29 The Amalekites live in the land of the arid southern plain; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the mountains; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”
God is calling them to the land. Yes? It is a land of great abundance. Yes? So we go and take the land. Yes? Well this is at least what Caleb thinks they should do.
30 Now Caleb calmed the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of it, because we are more than able to do it.”
God is calling them to the land. Yes? It is a land of great abundance. Yes? So we go and take the land. No? What? Really?
31 But the men who went up with him said, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we.” 32 They started a rumor about the land that they had explored, telling the Israelites, “The land that we crossed over to explore is a land that devours its residents. All the people we saw in it are huge men. 33 We saw there the Nephilim (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We saw ourselves as grasshoppers, and that’s how we appeared to them.”
The Israelites had a clear direction as to where God was calling them to go. It was a great land. “All they had to do” was trust God and His promises. Do not be surprised, when you find it hard to trust God. Do not be surprised even when people around you work against you, even starting rumors. Do not be surprised when God calls you to walk through your fear and grief.
Remember that God is worthy to be trusted. Go where He is calling you to go. Do what He is calling you to do. He will see you through.
Blessings,
Pastor Matt
(All scripture cited above from Common English Bible Copyright © 2011)