03/11/2025
HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW FEAR DISTORTS OUR THINKING? Yes, often times we are in fearful situations – a surprising health diagnosis, a broken relationship, a financial stress, a spiritual struggle and the list goes on. There are real issues that we struggle with and are burdened about.
BUT when fear reigns, it distorts! Did you notice some distorted thinking in Deut. 1:28? Here Moses is describing the time that the 10 spies demoralized the Israelites with their fearful talk of their inability to take the Promised Land. Yes, there were concerning issues. According to them there were big people (“giants”) and large cities. It did look challenging!
BUT in 1:28 Moses states that they described the situation as “the cities are large, and fortified (all the way up) to heaven . . .” Now that’s distorted! No city is fortified all the way up to heaven. That’s fear talking for sure!
Moses encouraged them to not be afraid and to remember all that the LORD had done for them in the past, to recall how He miraculously rescued them from Egypt, and how He “carried and protected you just as a man carries his son, all along the way which you traveled until you arrived at this place” (Deut. 1:31).
By remembering what HE HAD DONE for them in the past,
by recognizing WHO HE IS,
that “The Lord your God who goes before you
will fight for you Himself just as He did
in Egypt before your very eyes”, . . fear would have vanished
and trust would have flourished
to know that HE WILL care for them
in the fearful future now!
Sadly, they didn’t remember and didn’t trust and the results were devastating. BUT we can learn from this “distorted way” of fearful thinking and remember WHAT HE HAS DONE and recall WHO HE IS and then fearlessly trust that HE WILL care for us whatever may come! There are NO cities too fortified for HIM!
