How do you know what to believe? In this era where so much information is available to us all the time, the challenge is not so much finding out what we want to know as it is filtering out what is not helpful. Which news is really important? And which sources should you trust?

The people of Israel had exactly the same problem when the 12 spies returned from their trip into the Promised Land. For the spies brought two completely different accounts of what they had seen. Ten of the twelve saw only the problems and dangers of the land – the many people they would have to conquer, the strength of their fortifications and the size and fierceness of their leaders. As verses 31-33 demonstrate, their fears eventually led them to exaggerate the difficulties they would face, and they came to the conclusion that an invasion was simply hopeless.

On the other hand, Joshua and Caleb focused on the beauty and bounty that they had seen. They urged the people to go ahead and take possession of the land, confident that God would keep His promise to give it to them, and that God would clear away any obstacles they might face (14:8-9). In other words, their trust in the promise of God helped them focus on their opportunities, not on their fears.

And the same thing is true for us today. If we take in all the information that comes at us without any filter – the crime, the violence, the international unrest, all the political problems that we face – we are likely to fall into the trap of hatred or fear. But if we remember the promises of God to forgive all who trust in Christ as Savior, we are much more likely to be forgiving of others, even those with whom we disagree. If we remember the promises of God to protect all those who bow the knee to Christ as Lord, we are much less likely to be afraid, even of the worst sorts of dangers our omnipresent media draws to our attention.

In short, no matter what is going on around us, we can be confident if our confidence is placed in God. And we can press forward to accomplish His will, knowing that nothing can stop us.

Numbers 13:25-14:1 (NAS)

25 When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,
26 they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28 “Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 “Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”
32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.
33 “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”