Tonight Garry spoke about the ‘test of faith.’ It’s often said that God will never give us more than we can handle, but the acid test is whether we intend to handle life on our own or not. In Numbers 13:1-14:9, we see the spies sent out by Moses to find out about the promised land. They had seen that God had done mighty things for them through the plagues and then God’s deliverance from Egypt. They had seen God’s miraculous provision of manna in the wilderness. But they still saw the opposition as more powerful than God and did not trust Him to deliver the land into their hands.
God’s response was fierce, effectively accusing the Israelites of spiritual adultery. He was faithful, but they were faithless; they refused to believe. Because of this, they were not allowed to go into the Promised Land. Their refusal to trust God led them to believe they were not able to tackle the giants of Canaan, but they were never supposed to do that by themselves.
We need to understand that God does give us more than we can handle on our own, but the whole point of a life of faith is that we are not expected or supposed to tackle it on our own. God told Moses to go in the strength he had and reminded him that He would be with him. When God speaks to us, we may well feel unequal to the task, but He has promised to be with us (see Is 43:1-3, Rom 8:31) God never gives us more than we can handle with Him. Life is meant to be an adventure with God; we are not meant to go it alone.