WHAT DID YOU EXPECT TO FIND?

Think of today as your promised land.  When you woke up this morning, what did you expect to find: “clusters of grapes” or “giants”?  

Before the Israelites settled in Canaan, the land that God had promised them, He told Moses to send scouts to explore the land. I can imagine Moses giving them instructions: Find out all you can about the people. Do they have an army? What kind of weapons do they have? What’s the land like? Are there roads?  What kind of crops do they grow? How far do they have to go to get water?

After exploring the land, the men returned and gave a full report.  They brought back a cluster of grapes so large that it took two people to carry it on a pole between them. Caleb, one man, said, “Let’s go and take the land!”  All the other scouts complained that the people in the land were too strong.  They said, “We even saw giants! (Numbers 13)”

The clusters of grapes brought back from the Promised Land represented the promise of a new life.  Deeper yet, grapes pointed to the sacrificial blood of Jesus shed on the Cross, the source of this new and eternal life.

When I start the day in a bad mood, worried, tired, discouraged or depressed, focusing on myself and my problems, I lose perspective and all I can see are “giants.” I deny the existence of "heaven on earth." When I live in obedience to God’s will through faith in His word, my mind is renewed, doors of opportunity open, “grapes” become my portion, and I see glimpses of “heaven on earth.”

How about you?  What’s on your calendar for today? Grapes or giants?