#DailyDevotion Do You Trust The Lord’s Promises Or Do You Fear Life?
September 29
Deut 1:19–36
Deu 1:20-21 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. (21) See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’
Deu 1:35-36 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, (36) except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!’
One would think that with all the Lord had done for the Israelites their faith and obedience would be stronger than it was. Here the Moses is recounting the Israelites faithlessness in the face of God’s promise and the World’s opposition to those promises. The Lord took them to the land he had promised and told them to go and take it. They had good reason to believe the Lord to not be afraid or dismayed. They had seen him defeat the Egyptians. They had defeated other enemies because the Lord was on their side fighting for them. Yet, they resisted the Lord’s promise.
They sent men to spy out the land and only Joshua and Caleb reported that while the land was good and it was inhabited by mighty peoples, they should go in and take the land as the Lord had promised. The other spies while reporting about the land frightened the people because they were frightened themselves. How badly fear spreads among people and removes them from faith.
Because of their lack of trust in the Lord to fight their battles for them and his promise to take the land, those Israelites all died in the wilderness. None of them entered the Promised Land. They made a feigned act of repentance and rebelled against the Lord’s judgment and they failed. They simply would not believe or take the Lord at his word.
Do we trust the Lord’s promises? When the world around us and even our own consciences tell us that God is against us can we believe the promise the Father no longer holds our trespasses against us? (2 Cor. 5:19) Do we believe Jesus’ promise that the Father sent him into the world to save the world and not to condemn it and you are included in that world? (John 3:17ff)
What about what you need to live on? Do you trust your Father to supply you daily bread? Jesus told us to pray for daily bread. Jesus only tells us what the Father has given him to say. If Jesus tells you to pray for daily bread it is certainly the Father’s intention and promise to provide you with such sustenance. Mat 6:32-33 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (33) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Heavenly Father, grant us your Holy Spirit that we may trust your promises and live our days without fear but in the love you have shown us in Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.