Proverbs 26:13 The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. 14 As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.
This passage of scripture teaches us to avoid the bad habit of only looking at the negative circumstances of life, and blowing them out of proportion, until we are riddled with doubt and fear, as the given example in the above passage illustrates. It is true that we do live in an evil world, and the news of the day makes the heart sick, and the mind faint, however, we are never to be overwhelmed with the knowledge of these things, to the point where a permanent cloud rests upon our horizon. In the passage above, the slothful man remained in bed, because he believed that a lion was in the way, and instead of seeing this as a golden opportunity to slay the king of beasts, he instead retreats back into his bed, and sleeps, and waits, and fears all day long, accomplishing nothing whatsoever.
This is the very same attitude which took hold of the Hebrews, when the twelve spies were sent to spy out the land, and ten of them brought back an evil report, whilst only two saw an opportunity to conquer the land right there and then. As the ten unfaithful spies related the challenges of the way, they elaborated much more on the negatives than on the positives, and at every opportunity when Joshua and Caleb sought to reinforce faith and confidence in the people, the ten spies sought to magnify the difficulties and dangers they had so exaggerated in their minds and in their speech, which then led the entire congregation to lose courage, and consequently to murmur against God, and His servant Moses. Let's read:
Numbers 13:26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel"... "and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27 "And said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Whenever we harbor a negative outlook on life, it then puts us in a defeatist frame of mind, and all of our energies and will are dampened by the prevailing thoughts of failure, defeat, and loss. Thus we lose the battle before we begin to fight, and the power of God which could be exercised in granting us rare and unprecedented victories, is restricted by a lack of faith which sees dangers without deliverance, and troubles without solutions. As Christians we should instead cultivate a formidable attitude with a rugged mind of steel, which rests assuredly in the promises of God, and His omnipotent power to deliver and save to the guttermost. Thus with the two-edged sword of The Spirit in our hands, and with the shield of faith upon our chests, we too, like Joshua and Caleb will be able to say, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it".
Let us then exercise a living faith in The Eternal God, for we dwell as it were under His shadow, and He has promised to vanquish all our enemies, if we would but trust in Him. We therefore end with a passage of scripture which should inspire us with fortitude, courage, and strength, to face the "Lions" and The "Giants" that are in the way. Let's read:
Deuteronomy 33:25 Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. 26 There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. 27 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.
May God add His blessing to the study and practice of His word. "Good night" and God bless!