This morning in my Sunday School we embarked on another lesson about the fear of man. A woman in our class pointed out that as the Israelites stood on the edge of the promise land and sent in their spies, they were not unlike us. You see, they received scary reports about the giants in the land and they could not imagine (although God promised) that they COULD, nay WOULD, see these fortified cities destroyed through them, by the hand of God.
She said, “WE know ourselves too well. WE know that kind of victory is not in us.”
And I think she is right in some ways. We stand on the edge of that land and KNOW our shortcomings. We can’t imagine that God could do something so brave, so magnificent, so memorable through us. Sure we know HE can do anything HE wants to do. He could slay those giants while we wait on the edge of the land.
BUT
I could not have imagined or dreamed of this life I now live fifteen years ago. I would have been right to stand trembling on the edge of the promise land. I knew it wasn’t in me. I was already conquered, I’d already been defeated.
BUT NOW….
“Greater is He who is in me.”
I can not say the same thing now. I can’t begin to imagine what God can accomplish through me and I stand on the edge of my promise land. I know it is my God who fought for me and now it is God who will fight through me. IT is not in me. BUT HE is.
To stand on the edge of the next battle and worry about if I have what it takes is putting the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syllable. Greater is He who is in me, than me alone. Greater is He who is in me; HE who CAN and WILL use me. Greater is He who is in me, than any giant, anywhere.
Bring on the promise land.
