[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0629":3},"JUNE 29\r\nThere we saw the giants (Num. 13:33).\r\nYes, they saw the giants, but Caleb and Joshua saw God! Those who doubt say, \"We be not able to go up.\" Those\r\nwho believe say, \"Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able. \"\r\n\r\nGiants stand for great difficulties; and giants are stalking\r\neverywhere. They are in our families, in our churches, in our\r\nsocial life, in our own hearts; and we must overcome them or they will eat us up, as these men of old said of the giants of Canaan.\r\nThe men of faith said, \"They are bread for us; we will eat them\r\nup.\" In others words, \"We will be stronger by overcoming them than if there had been no giants to overcome.\"\r\nNow the fact is, unless we have the overcoming faith we shall be eaten up, consumed by the giants in our path. Let us have the\r\nspirit of faith that these men of faith had, and see God, and He will take care of the difficulties. --Selected.\r\nIt is when we are in the way of duty that we find giants. It was\r\nwhen Israel was going forward that the giants appeared. When they turned back into the wilderness they found none.\r\nThere is a prevalent idea that the power of God in a human life should lift us above all trials and conflicts. The fact is, the\r\npower of God always brings a conflict and a struggle. One would\r\nhave thought that on his great missionary journey to Rome, Paul\r\nwould have been carried by some mighty providence above the power of storms and tempests and enemies. But, on the contrary, it was\r\none long, hard fight with persecuting Jews, with wild tempests,\r\nwith venomous vipers and all the powers of earth and hell, and at\r\nlast he was saved, as it seemed, by the narrowest margin, and had    to swim ashore at Malta on a piece of wreckage and barely escape a watery grave.\r\nWas that like a God of infinite power? Yes, just like Him. And so\r\nPaul tells us that when he took the Lord Jesus Christ as the life\r\nof his body, a severe conflict immediately came; indeed, a conflict   that never ended, a pressure that was persistent, but out of which   he always emerged victorious through the strength of Jesus Christ.\r\nThe language in which he describes this is most graphic. \"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in\r\ndespair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not\r\ndestroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our\r\nbody.\"\r\nWhat a ceaseless, strenuous struggle! It is impossible to express in English the forcible language of the original. There are five\r\npictures in succession. In the first, the idea is crowding enemies\r\npressing In from every side, and yet not crushing him because the\r\npolice of heaven cleared the way just wide enough for him to get\r\nthrough. The literal translation would be, \"We are crowded on every side, but not crushed.\"\r\nThe second picture is that of one whose way seems utterly dosed and\r\nyet he has pressed through; there is light enough to show him the next step. The Revised Version translates it, \"Perplexed but not\r\nunto despair.\" Rotherham still more literally renders it \"Without a way, but not without a by-way. \"\r\nThe third figure is that of an enemy in hot pursuit while the\r\ndivine Defender still stands by, and he is not left alone. Again we\r\nadopt the fine rendering of Rotherham, \"Pursued but not abandoned.\"\r\n\r\nThe fourth figure is still more vivid and dramatic. The enemy has\r\novertaken him, has struck him, has knocked him down. But it Is not\r\na fatal blow; he is able to rise again. It might be translated, \"Overthrown but not overcome.\"\r\nOnce more the figure advances, and now it seems to be even death itself, \"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord\r\nJesus.\" But he does not die, for \"the life also of Jesus\" now comes\r\nto his aid and he lives in the life of another until his life work is done.\r\nThe reason so many fail in this experience of divine healing is\r\nbecause they expect to have it all without a struggle, and when the\r\nconflict comes and the battle wages long, they become discouraged  and surrender. God has nothing worth having that is easy. There are no cheap goods in the heavenly market Our redemption cost all that  God had to give, and everything worth having is expensive. Hard\r\nplaces are the very school of faith and character, and if we are to\r\nrise over mere human strength and prove the power of life divine in these mortal bodies, it must be through a process of conflict that\r\nmay well be called the birth travail of a new life. It is the old\r\nfigure of the bush that burned, but was not consumed, or of the\r\nVision in the house of the Interpreter of the flame that would not\r\nexpire, notwithstanding the fact that the demon ceaselessly poured  water on it, because in the background stood an angel ever pouring oil and keeping the flame aglow.\r\nNo, dear suffering child of God, you cannot fail if only you dare to believe, to stand fast and refuse to be overcome.\r\n--Tract.",1783499793162]