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 A few years back, getting a Bible verse written on a grain of rice was all the rage. I don’t know how you could check for it or tell if they spelled it right unless you had a microscope, but people were clamoring over each other for those rice grains. When looking at it with the naked eye, you’d think it was just a grain that somehow escaped the fate of all the others and missed the rice cooker, but no, this one had a verse on it.

I’m a big-picture guy as much as anyone else, but sometimes we have to dig a bit deeper than just touching our television screens to understand the finite nuances of certain truths contained within the Word.

While temptation is an invitation to sin, testing is your invitation to make a choice. You choose to trust God, remain faithful, and press ever onward, or you choose to give in, throw your hands up in frustration, and quit.

Some might not understand the nuanced differences between the two, but in the end, we were not created to understand God; we were created to obey Him. Depending on their age, you can explain why a child shouldn’t stick a fork in the electrical socket until you’re blue in the face; they’ll still try to do it because impulse control isn’t all that developed in toddlers, and their capacity to understand danger isn’t at all refined. When a baby tries to pet a lion, it’s not being brave and fearless; it’s being ignorant of the danger the lion poses.

Because its parents know how dangerous a lion is, they keep their children away. Even so, some stubborn ones keep trying to stick their hands through the bars when the parents aren’t looking, and if they’re fortunate, all they’ll get is a good fright. If they’re not so fortunate, you hope they can learn to write with their left hand.

The problem, one that must be remedied sooner rather than later, is that many so-called spiritual fathers and mothers aren’t keeping their spiritual children away from the lions but feeding them to the lions. Because of their spiritual infancy, the aforementioned spiritual children don’t know any better until it’s too late. It’s only when they’re in the cage being sniffed at by a hungry lion that they realize being given license by your pastor to do something the Bible tells you shouldn’t be done doesn’t make it okay in the sight of God.

I don’t doubt that some of them even think they’re being magnanimous or that they’re protecting you when they insist that the testing of your faith isn’t a natural occurrence in the believer's life, and you should do everything in your power to avoid it.

If you want to enter your Caanan, you must defeat your giants. I know it’s scary, and you wouldn’t be the first to balk at the idea, but if God promised you a Canaan, know that He will be with you until it is yours. He never promised it would be easy or that you wouldn’t have to fight for it. He did promise that your fighting would not be in vain and your faithfulness would be amply rewarded.

At God’s behest, Israel even sent scouts to ensure that what He had promised them was truly there. God didn’t say he was considering giving them the land or thinking about it. He didn’t say it was one of many areas He was looking at or insist that He was still haggling over the price.

Numbers 13:1, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”

This was a done deal. God had made up His mind about which land He would give to the children of Israel, and Canaan was it. The scouts returned carrying one cluster of grapes between two men and confirming that it was indeed a land flowing with milk and honey, but there was one problem: There were giants in the land.

Only two of the men who were sent to spy out the land saw the situation as an opportunity for God to prove Himself. Caleb and Joshua stood on the promise of God, refusing to allow the things they saw in the physical to sway them from the faith they possessed in their hearts.

While everyone else was skittish and working the odds, Caleb chomped at the bit, saying let us go up at once and take possession of what God promised us. There was no hesitancy, no fear, and no consideration for how big the giants were because Caleb knew how big his God was.

I’d rather have one Caleb fighting by my side than three dozen skittish men who jump at the first sound of battle. While everyone else was wondering what if they lost, Caleb and Joshua insisted that they couldn’t lose.

The subtle shift in how you view a situation can determine your victory and defeat. If the ever-present thought in your mind is what if you lose, then you will hesitate, you will flinch, you will draw back when you need to press forward. If, however, you have determined that you can’t lose because God said you wouldn’t, then no matter how fierce the opposition, no matter how many enemies stand in your way, no matter how hopeless the situation might seem in the moment, you will persevere because you know victory is assured.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.