I have just been reading the story in the Bible about how the children of Israel reacted to the news brought to them by the spies who had gone ahead into Canaan.  (You can find it in Numbers 13 and Deuteronomy 1) Many of you will know the story well and recall how they believed the negatives told to them by ten of the twelve spies rather than the positive message of faith brought to them by Joshua and Caleb.  The sad ending to the story was that their unbelief sentenced them to die in the wilderness rather than to enter into the good land that God had promised.

What I hadn’t really seen before was how much their perceptions of how God felt towards them influenced their reasoning bringing fear and unbelief.  The people said that God hated them (see Deut. 1:27) whereas Joshua and Caleb believed that God delighted in them (see Numbers 13:8) and that was why they knew they would be successful, in spite of the obstacles and difficulties they had to face.

Perhaps now you are beginning to see where I am going with this…  You have been in bondage to food, some of you for many, many years, and now you are being encouraged to trust God to deliver you.  Up ahead there is the Promised Land but you must enter in by faith.  It isn’t all going to be plain sailing!  Are you strong enough to face your giants? Of course not! Will God come through for you?  Now that is something you must decide for yourself and your answer may well depend on how you think God views you.

It wasn’t that the children of Israel didn’t believe God was capable of giving them the victory against their enemies – they had seen His amazing power displayed on many previous occasions – but they doubted His willingness to act on their behalf now.  They actually believed that God hated them.  Perhaps they were thinking about all the times they had let God down and been unfaithful and disobedient and (because this is a human reaction) concluded that He had turned against them.  Hate is a strong word, and you probably wouldn’t go that far, but many of us deep down carry a warped view of God that He only performs miracles for those who deserve it. We look at our track record of how often we have let God down, and fail to enter in because of our unbelief.

But Joshua and Caleb held a different view – they knew that God delighted in them and that was why they would be able to overcome.  In spite of their rebellion, murmuring and complaining God still delighted in them! God’s love isn’t fickle like human emotion; it is everlasting, and totally non-dependant on what we have done to deserve it. 

So is God going to deliver you from your bondage to food? Is He going to enable you to lose weight so that you can be healthier?  Yes He is!  Just feed on His faithfulness.  He delights in you today.  You are His child and He is standing right by your side to make you more than a conqueror – why? Because He loves you!