Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart.  They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are;the cities are large, with walls up to the sky...Deuteronomy 1:28


Where and what has God called you to?  Is it bigger than you? Is it impossible?
Good. 
It might just be about His glory and not yours.
Good.

Possessing the promise land for the Israelites was God's design, it wasn't their idea.
Their question therefore 'Where can we go?' or 'What way can we go up into the land?' was not based on what God desired but rather what man feared.

If the fear of what others think is louder in our hearts than what God desires we will lose heart.

What is it to lose heart?
To lose heart is to lose courage.
Courage is always coupled with the purpose of God.
Courage is always coupled with His glory.
Discouragement is always coupled with self, seasoned with victim mentality, blaming others for our lack of heart.

Courage.

Two spies came back with a positive report, ten negative...difference...faith.
Believing what God says is true. 
Faith always results in courage.
Its a gift because you know it is possible even though you have done nothing and logically it is totally impossible.

The cities we are called to reach are intense.
Its real.
It will eat you up and spit you out.
Its imposible.
Its too difficult.
Its too dark.
Its too large.
Its too...
Its too...
Its too...

It was His design not your idea.
He commanded you, you didn't ask.

It is not your fear driving you to reach a city it is His heart for humanity to know His glory.

You lose sight of His Glory you lose courage, you lose courage, you lose heart, you lose heart, you lose purpose, you lose purpose, you lose.

Our Heart His Courage.

Our Heart His Love.

Our broken hearts His unending Grace.

As we live for His glory courage comes like a flood.

Do not lose heart friend, lose your heart in His glory.


It all hangs on this...


+jk

Psalm 116:6
The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me.

It is the proud who God resists.

If our hearts are complicated we may find that we are trying to figure life out without God.

When we rely on God life becomes simple...not easy...simple.

True salvation occurs at the point of humility.

Then we continue to be saved as we stay simplehearted.

Is your heart feeling complicated today?

Check out the surrounding passages to verse 6...

 ⁵ The LORD is gracious and righteous;
       our God is full of compassion.

 ⁷ Be at rest once more, O my soul,
       for the LORD has been good to you.

Because God is gracious and righteous and full of compassion,
we don't have to save ourselves and he will fulfill our great need!

Now we can rest for He protects us and He has been so so good to us.

David loved the Lord for he knew God heard his cry and his need.

I love the Lord...He is so good to me.

Prayer:
Simplify my heart today Lord, for I need you more than anything in this world.

amen.

+jk

WE NEED A NEW HEART...

If you have a chance read first 2 chapters of Romans.

But how do you know where your heart is at?  Here are some indicators...

Matthew 12:34 - SPEECH
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matthew 15:19 - THOUGHT LIFE
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Proverbs 12:23 – LEVEL OF PRIDE
A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly.

Psalm 84 – YOUR DESIRE FOR GOD

2 My soul yearns, even faints,
       for the courts of the LORD;
       my heart and my flesh cry out
       for the living God.


Mark 7:18-20 – YOUR ACTIONS
18"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
 20He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.'

From here we can now understand the state of our heart and turn back to God through repentance.

Where is your heart at?

+jk