OCTOBER  9

HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?

NUMBERS 13:1-33


“And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Num. 13:33)

I often deal with people who are bothered by what others think about them. I understand this to a degree. The Lord didn’t create us to be rejected. Therefore, no one likes it. We all want to be accepted, but what someone else thinks about you shouldn’t determine what you think about yourself!

These leaders of the Israeli nation let the opinion of the people in the land of Canaan influence their thinking. They saw themselves as grasshoppers compared to the giants of the land. In reality, it was like the old cliché, “The bigger the are, the harder they fall!” It didn’t matter how big these people were. God could handle them! The Israelites would have nice big houses to dwell in after they’d conquered them.

What other people think about us is not the important thing; it’s what we think about ourselves that controls us. These people saw themselves as grasshoppers. A grasshopper isn’t going to fight a giant. Contrast this with the way David saw himself against the giant Goliath (1 Sam. 17). David referred to the fact that Goliath was uncircumcised, which meant that he didn’t have a covenant with God that David did. David saw himself as the one with the advantage, and that’s the way it turned out.

Each of us face giants, and there are plenty of people (like these spies) to tell you that you can’t win. However, it doesn’t matter how they see you. The question is: How do you see yourself? (AW)