Many of us sometimes feel our lives went all wrong. Unexpected twists and turns in our journeys and the view of what is in front of us is overwhelming and gloomy at best. The pain and scariness of this clouds our vision...our eternal perspective.
Sometimes it's "safer" and more "comfortable" living in our past pain and disappointments than it is moving out of that space into something new and unknown. We have no vision for what God is doing in our lives today. We are constantly "looking back" and we are missing what God is doing in the here and now.
The Israelites had this vision problem. In Numbers 13-14 after coming back from their scouting trip into the Promised Land, 10 of the 12 men reported nothing but gloom and doom in what they saw and experienced.
"We are not able to go up against the people of Canaan, for they are stronger than we are. The land through which we went to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Numbers 13: 31-33)
Upon hearing this, the entire congregation of people said, ""If only we had died in Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness! Why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be a prey. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?" (Numbers 14:3)
Oh how they longed for Egypt. They looked back and thought they saw life. Imagine that! Their vision of living in slavery looked better than moving forward into what God promised to be a land of milk and honey.
How often do we enslave ourselves in our past opting for that familiarity rather than freeing ourselves to embrace the possibilities of our future adventure in Christ?
"It's just too hard. It's so overwhelming. We (I) can't move forward. We (I) can't conquer those giants in our (my) path."
Oh, but God isn't asking us to conquer anything other than our blindness. He will do the conquering of the obstacles before us. We are asked simply to seek His face, trust Him and live with a bigger vision. An eternal perspective.
There is another incident in the Bible where a perspective needed to be changed.
'One time when the king of Syria was at war with Israel, after consulting with his officers, he said, "At such and such a place I want an ambush set."
The Holy Man of God (Elisha) sent a message to the king of Israel: "Watch out when you're passing this place, because the Syrian king has set an ambush there."
So the king of Israel sent word concerning the place of which the Holy Man had warned him. This kind of thing happened all the time. The Syrian king was furious over all this. He called his officers together and said, "Tell me, who is leaking information to the king of Israel? Who is the spy in our ranks?"
But one of his men said, "No, my master, dear king. It's not any of us. It's Elisha the prophet in Israel. He tells the king of Israel everything you say, even what you whisper in your bedchamber."
The king said, "Go and find out where he is. I'll send someone and capture him." The report came bank, "He's in Dothan." Then he dispatched horses and chariots, an impressive fighting force. They came by night and surrounded the city.
Early in the morning the servant of the Holy Man, Elisha, got up and went out. What a terrifying surprise! Horses and chariots surrounding the city! The young man exclaimed, "Oh, master! What are we going to do?"
Elisha said, "Don't worry about it. There are more on our side than on their side."
Then Elisha prayed, "O God, open his eyes and let him see."
The eyes of the young man were opened and he saw. A wonder! The whole mountainside full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha!' (II Kings 6: 8-17)
Stop longing for Egypt. Stop looking back. Look up dear one. Look up to the mountains and see God surrounding your life urging you to trust Him to bring you to your own promised land for your life.
