Overcoming Doubt with Faith and Vision
Psalm 106:24
Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:
It was difficult for me to understand why the children of Israel despised the promised land until I too was almost paralyzed by doubt. Then I understood just how vulnerable the human spirit is to circumstantial pandemonium, even to the point of denying the very promises of God!
What we must learn to do, dear reader, is to put on our spiritual eyeglasses of faith which see through the fog of present-day obstacles; otherwise, we will begin to despise that which God intended for us to enjoy and forfeit our pass into the promised land experience. That’s why it is easy for those who have not yet tasted of the grapes of Canaan to be so critical towards those who dare to cross over Jordan; their vision is blurred!
They think that what they already have is as good as it gets, so when God begins to bless someone else with something they don’t have, they despise rather than celebrate! You know who despises you by knowing who criticizes you! I have observed that those who are of doubtful dispositions concerning the blessings of God are the same ones who do not receive an abundant supply from His storehouse. Could it be that the reason these individuals are in this predicament is because of their unbelief?
Often, those who doubt also justify their doubt based upon their own present and past experience, thinking, “Well, that’s never happened to me!” Never once does it occur to them that it could happen to them if they would only believe! If you can see it, then you can get it. The problem with most of Israel was that they just couldn’t see it. They chose to believe the evil report instead of the report of faith delivered by Joshua and Caleb. Because believing is seeing, and they did not believe, therefore they could not see.
Lack of faith is nothing short of blindness. That’s why faith and vision go hand in hand; without a vision the people indeed will perish, but I’d also like to say that without faith the vision will perish. Joshua and Caleb caught a glimpse of what they could have, and then they went for it! They didn’t just see what they saw with the natural eye that day they spied out the land; they saw through the spiritual eye what their future would hold! May it never be said of us, “They believed not His word!”
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:
It was difficult for me to understand why the children of Israel despised the promised land until I too was almost paralyzed by doubt. Then I understood just how vulnerable the human spirit is to circumstantial pandemonium, even to the point of denying the very promises of God!
What we must learn to do, dear reader, is to put on our spiritual eyeglasses of faith which see through the fog of present-day obstacles; otherwise, we will begin to despise that which God intended for us to enjoy and forfeit our pass into the promised land experience. That’s why it is easy for those who have not yet tasted of the grapes of Canaan to be so critical towards those who dare to cross over Jordan; their vision is blurred!
They think that what they already have is as good as it gets, so when God begins to bless someone else with something they don’t have, they despise rather than celebrate! You know who despises you by knowing who criticizes you! I have observed that those who are of doubtful dispositions concerning the blessings of God are the same ones who do not receive an abundant supply from His storehouse. Could it be that the reason these individuals are in this predicament is because of their unbelief?
Often, those who doubt also justify their doubt based upon their own present and past experience, thinking, “Well, that’s never happened to me!” Never once does it occur to them that it could happen to them if they would only believe! If you can see it, then you can get it. The problem with most of Israel was that they just couldn’t see it. They chose to believe the evil report instead of the report of faith delivered by Joshua and Caleb. Because believing is seeing, and they did not believe, therefore they could not see.
Lack of faith is nothing short of blindness. That’s why faith and vision go hand in hand; without a vision the people indeed will perish, but I’d also like to say that without faith the vision will perish. Joshua and Caleb caught a glimpse of what they could have, and then they went for it! They didn’t just see what they saw with the natural eye that day they spied out the land; they saw through the spiritual eye what their future would hold! May it never be said of us, “They believed not His word!”
~ Pastor Gary Caudill