Fear of the fight

Good afternoon everybody,
Look at the children of Israel as they approached the promised land the first time. They had been in the wilderness for about a year. They were supernaturally delivered, healed (see psalm 105,, there was not a feeble one among their tribes), and completely provided for. A warm pillar of fire at night,, a shady cloud to keep them cool during the day, water from rocks, manna, silver, gold, etc. Every need met! Even their clothes didn’t wear out.
But when the ten spies told them how small they were, they cried all night. Did they have to cry? No. Get what they said. Numbers 14 1 Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained.
Wishing you were dead, now that is sad. What would make them say that??? Here’s the thing… In Egypt, they were slaves but it was a known evil. Slavery, but no battle. Misery, but they knew the misery. After all, they had garlic, leeks and onions, they said. In the wilderness, they didn’t have to work except a short gathering period in the morning. They were completely dependant on the Lord for every detail of their lives. It was a pretty nice life, compared to slavery where they worked to the bone. But in that year, even though they would have unquestionably died without active, moment by moment divine intervention, they never learned to trust in God. Why? Well, one reason is they were unthankful. Romans 1 says your understanding gets darkened when you are unthankful. In other words, you get stupid. They were so used to complaining, they did it without thinking. So they were still in bondage, even though they were physically free. Slaves don’t make good warriors.
Wanting to die rather than fight, all because they complained themselves stupid. Mental bondage.
Have we been afraid to fight the devil? Why? Does complaining come out of our mouths by habit? Think about complaining for a second. Does it show that you are believing things will get better? Does it remind you of the things God has done for you? Does it speak life or build your confidence or faith in God? No, so it doesn’t please Him.
We are all guilty of complaining, but let’s replace those thoughts and words with the truth. If it were not for the Lord and His grace, we would have died in any of a thousand ways. Every day!! Truly, the proper thing to say when the conversation lulls is thank the Lord. Thanks be to God!
The children magnified the problem by complaining instead of magnifying the Lord by thanks, so they were too afraid to fight. You see, God doesn’t want our praise for His sake , it’s for our sake. So we will not forget how big and how GOOD He is. So we will not be afraid of the fight, knowing that our big, good Daddy loves us and is with us every moment. And He is for us so who can be against us? What do we have to worry about? Absolutely nothing!
You know what? That may be the heart of the fight right there. Who, or what, do we make bigger (magnify) in our lives? That’s who, or what, wins.
O magnify the Lord with me!! I love you all.

healed by His stripes,
Nancy Bass
http://nancysministry.blogspot.com