Tag: fears

Do you ever have a week where it seems like you hear God teach the same lesson to you over and over again? That describes my experience last week. Maybe I’m just too hard-headed, and God needed to keep repeating himself. But I honestly believe that my circumstances were intended as a lesson to learn and a blog post to write.

Why do we allow our feelings to trump what we know about our faith? How have our lives suffered because we have chosen to respond to our feelings instead of our faith? It seems like an easier question to answer than it is. I’ve spent a week thinking about that idea. 

It all began with a Sunday school lesson from the book of Numbers.

When fear trumps faith

Have you noticed how many of the news stories are written and reported with the goal of creating fear? Opinions are presented as fact and phrased to evoke a fear response. Spend some time this week listening to the news with the goal of spiritual discernment. You will likely be shocked at the way you hear things in a new light. We are more likely to become passionate about an opinion when we are afraid of someone else’s. If fear trumps faith, we will miss a lot of God’s blessings. That was true for the people in the book of Numbers.

Numbers 13 and 14 are about the twelve spies who were sent into the promised land to scope out the people and places that God had led them toward. You know the story. All twelve spies returned home, affirming the land was exactly what God had promised. They had found abundant food, water, and other blessings, but, there were also a few “giants” and other perceived dangers. Ten of the spies were adamant that entering the promised land would mean certain death. Joshua and Caleb were certain that they could trust God to handle whatever came their way. The people believed the ten who were afraid instead of the two who were faithful. The people’s feelings trumped their faith, and it cost them a life in the promised land.

The twelve spies were convinced of two very different outcomes. Ten men said everyone would be captured and probably killed. Two men said, “Let’s trust God and go.” Scripture tells us, “Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.  And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’  And they said to one another, ‘Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt’” (Numbers 14:1–4).

Which spies would you have sided with, and why? I confess that I would probably have followed the ten. The majority often rules, even when it is wrong. Joshua and Caleb lived long enough to lead the people into the promised land. The other ten spies died before that day. The majority of the spies got it wrong, and then they, along with their families, paid a price.

How can we allow our faith to trump our fear?

What lesson was God teaching the Israelites? How is that a lesson for us today?

God asked Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” (Numbers 14:11). Moses knew God was angry because the people lacked faith. They had witnessed the miracles in Egypt and the evidence of God’s care for them throughout their journey from Egypt. Yet, they trusted the men who feared rather than the faith of Joshua and Caleb. 

Why did Joshua’s and Caleb’s faith trump their fears? The question I have asked myself for the past week is this: Were Joshua and Caleb “younger men” than the other ten? They lived another forty years, and Joshua actually led the people into the battles after they entered the land. The Bible doesn’t tell us if Caleb and Joshua were younger, but based on the information above, it is a valid question. It’s a question worth considering for our lives today.

Faith can only trump fear when we set aside any other influence. Wisdom comes with age, but so do some of our fears. Experience is a great teacher unless God is planning to do a “new thing” in our lives. As I’ve said before, just a quick study of Scripture is a reminder that “God’s ways are not our ways.” How often do we limit God to our best thoughts instead of seeking his?

When do our feelings trump our faith?

Most of our church committees are set up to follow a majority opinion. Americans live in a democracy that requires us to accept majority decisions. We are taught to trust that the majority of people will vote for the best choice. God taught us to seek counsel and trust godly people for spiritual advice. Sometimes, godly counsel is not the majority opinion.

• When did you last sit on a committee that voted to do what most didn’t want to do?
• What is the last decision you made out of obedience to God, even though it seemed a reckless choice to other people?
• When have we followed the minority opinion to be right with God?
• Are Jacob and Caleb relevant examples for God’s children today?

The answers to the questions above are important and worth considering. Joshua and Caleb didn’t offer the majority opinion, and God wouldn’t have preserved the story in Scripture if it didn’t matter to us today. The major difference between decision-making as God’s children now, compared to those in the Old Testament, involves the gift that Jesus died to give.

Faith can trump our feelings

The people of the Old Testament saw amazing miracles. The Ark of the Covenant, then the temple, literally contained the holy Presence of God. The altar provided a way for them to be made right with God. The law was God’s covenant promise with his people. And all of that didn’t sustain the people’s faith in God.

So God gave the world Jesus and then, through faith in his Son, God gave us his Holy Spirit. Counsel is good when it is Spirit-led. A committee will lead us to a correct decision if most of its members are led by God’s Spirit. The majority opinion is valuable if the majority of the people came to their opinion through the spiritual direction of God’s Spirit. Faith can trump our fears and our feelings if we can trust God’s voice and God’s word to matter more than any other influence the world offers.

Now, the practical lesson that God kept teaching me last week is this: What feelings or influences have I put ahead of God’s word? What decisions have I made, and what opinions have I believed that were borne of media-induced fear instead of biblical faith? Which voices shout louder than God’s?

Faith should trump our feelings, especially our fears. To ignore God’s Spirit is to walk in the wilderness. What truth is God’s voice prompting you to trust today?