March 09, 2010

I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!

-Numbers 11:29

The plague of small thinking strikes again! Joshua was extremely concerned that someone other than Moses might be used of God to prophesy. Joshua did not comprehend that God can use whomever He wants in order to accomplish whatever He wants.

In Numbers 13 the ten spies had to make a decision regarding the grapes and the giants. Huge clusters of fruit should have captured the Israelites’ attention, faith, and excitement. Instead, their eyes were on the giants who stood guard over the abundance.

The devil always tries to get our attention focused more on his resistance than on God’s provision. A small, limited vision will make us feel “like grasshoppers” in comparison to the giants (Numbers 13:33), instead of feeling that “we can certainly conquer” (v. 30)!

Philip rehearsed to Jesus how impossible it was to feed five thousand men in the wilderness, but Andrew went and found five loaves and two fish. Small thinking involves meditating on negative, impossible thoughts that outweigh the truth of God’s Word. Although Moses had told the spies to go into the land with boldness and bring back a sampling of the crops (Numbers 13:20), the spies’ fearful thinking caused them to believe that they could never get to the grapes because the giants were too large.

Think large: Conquest . . . good report . . . well able!

Daily Readings: Numbers 11:24-13:33 • Mark 14:22-52
• Psalm 52:1-9 • Proverbs 11:1-3

The One Year Devotional used by permission from Bethany World Prayer Center and Pastor Larry Stockstill . For more information, please see www.bethany.com or www.bccn.com.