Help Me Believe!

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.” Numbers 13:27

“How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?” Numbers 13:11b

Moses commissioned a group of men to secretly go into the land of Canaan where God had led them through the wilderness. This was the promised land for which God had talked about consistently in the wilderness. He had revealed His will and led them to the border. The men were told to search the land and confirm that it was flowing with the blessings God had promised. They even returned with fruit from the land as a sign of prosperity and confirmation. But the Israelites came back with something greater than God’s word – their fear. This fear eventually kept them from feasting on the glorious promise and blessings of Yahweh!

Some days we are no better than the disbelieving Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, failing to receive God’s best. We feel that God had led us to something but then our faith is replaced with fear and our doubt becomes paramount. When my daughter relapsed a while back my fear came back with such a vengeance my heart was no longer at peace. Having to intentionally focus on His past faithfulness, I returned to peace in my heart and again experienced the ‘fruit of knowledge’ that God did save and God would save. But, sometimes the testing of our faith is at hand and we must rehearse and remember the miraculous workings of the Lord in other trials.

‘There are some, however, who get to the point of testing or waiting, and they begin to doubt or complain. This attitude may put God’s plan into a holding pattern until they repent for their lack of faith and their complaining. Sadly there are many people who have heard God’s word, they have determined His will, and they have begun looking for His way, but in the time of waiting and testing, they lost faith and began complaining. Like the children of Israel, they had to go around and around the wilderness mountain until they came to the place of confidence in God’s goodness, and until they stopped complaining and began praising their heavenly Father.’ Seven Keys To Hearing God’s Voice, p. 167.

On days when we doubt, and we all will have those days, we can lift the prayer of Mark 9:24, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’