Brett found an old Cary Grant movie on Netflix and we sat down to watch it. When it was finished Brett got up to put Aspen to bed. Aspen in an attempt to stay up longer clicked on another Cary Grant movie. Not to be deterred from his plan Brett took Aspen to bed for her bedtime routine. I half-heartedly stayed sitting on the couch and watched the movie.
About half-way through the movie our Chinese student, who is staying with us over break, came upstairs and I fixed him a sandwich. I nearly went back to watching the movie when it dawned on me that it was after 10pm and I hadn’t written a post yet for today. I nearly talked myself out of writing, after all it is Valentines eve, it is past my bed time, and the biggest obstacle of all……what would I write about.
Then it dawned on me. How easily I am distracted from something I should be doing by something that is not important at all. I was reminded of the story of the Israelites when they sent Joshua, Caleb and other leaders to go check out the promised land. When they came back the leaders reported how fertile the soil was and brought back huge bunches of grapes to prove it. Then they told everyone how they would never be able to go into the promised land because of the giants that lived there.
Joshua and Caleb told the Israelites not to worry about the giants, the giants were God’s problem. But, the people refused to believe that God would actually give them the land He had promised them. So God didn’t, He allowed them to wander forty years in the desert until they died and then He gave the promised land to their children.
The Israelites let themselves be distracted by the giants. The giants loomed bigger than God. We wonder how they could have done that, we are sure we wouldn’t have allowed the fear of being stepped on by a giant outweigh our faith that God is bigger than any giant in our lives, real or imagined. Just remember that any giants in your life are a distraction that the devil uses to keep you from seeing the power of God at work in your life. No, the Israelites on their own could not have over come the giants in the land, but God had promised them the land and with faith in Him they could have lived the next forty years eating grapes rather than wandering in the wilderness.
