「我們在那裡看見拿非利人（巨人）；我們看自己就如蚱蜢一樣。」－民數記13:33
懷疑的人說：「我們不能上去」。相信的人卻說：「我們立刻上去得那地吧，因為我們足能得勝」。
巨人，就是高壯、難以應付的艱難，他們無時無刻在我們身旁高傲的踱步。
他們出現在我們的家庭生活中，在教會和社會裡，甚至他們就在你我的心中。我們若不將他們制伏，他們就會像迦南地的巨人將我們生吞活剝。
相信的人說：「巨人是我們的食物；我們可以吞吃他們。吞吃他們以後，我們會更為強壯。」
事實上，只有得勝的信心能叫我們不被巨人吞吃。
讓我們同樣支取迦勒和約書亞信心的靈，專一的仰望神，讓祂照料我們一切的難處。
－選
唯有當我們願意承接神的使命，走上祂的道路時，我們才會遇見巨人。
當以色列人邁向應許之地，才看見巨人；他們若掉頭走回曠野，就不會發現巨人的存在。
一般人總認為神力量的顯明會讓人脫離試煉與兇惡，但實際上卻恰恰相反。
人們會想，當保羅為著主的緣故到羅馬傳福音的時候，理當有神大能同在的保守，使他脫離風浪和敵人。但事實上他受盡了苦楚：猶太人的迫害，狂風大浪無情的摧殘、毒蛇的侵襲，以及來自地上和陰間傾勢而出的攻擊；最後他雖然大難不死，卻也只能茍延孱喘的抓住一塊破損的船板，勉強的游到米利大的海岸，差點沒葬身魚腹。
這像是一個有神大能同在之人的經歷嗎？
的確是的。因此保羅告訴我們，當我們願意讓神住在我們靈裡時，就得預備好迎接猛烈萬分，無止無終的奮鬥。儘管如此，他也總能靠著主的力量，凡事得勝有餘。
「我們四面受壓，卻不被困住；出路絕了，卻非絕無出路；遭逼迫，卻不被撇棄；打倒了，卻不至滅亡；身體上常帶著耶穌的治死，使耶穌的生命也顯明在我們的身體上。」－哥林多後書4:8-10－福音單張
"There we saw the giants" (Num. 13:33).Yes, they saw the giants, but Caleb and Joshua saw God! Those who doubt say, "We be not able to go up." Those who believe say, "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able."
Giants stand for great difficulties; and giants are stalking everywhere. They are in our families, in our churches, in our social 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.
The men of faith said, "They are bread for us; we will eat them up." In other words, "We will be stronger by overcoming them than if there had been no giants to overcome."
Now 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 spirit of faith that these men of faith had, and see God, and He will take care of the difficulties. --Selected
It is when we are in the way of duty that we find giants. It was when Israel was going forward that the, giants appeared. When they turned back into the wilderness they found none.
There 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 power of God always brings a conflict and a struggle. One would have thought that on his great missionary journey to Rome, Paul would have been carried by some mighty providence above the power of storms and tempests and enemies. But, on the contrary, it was one long, hard fight with persecuting Jews, with wild tempests, with venomous vipers and all the powers of earth and hell, and at last 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.
Was that like a God of infinite power? Yes, just like Him. And so Paul tells us that when he took the Lord Jesus Christ as the life of 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.
The language in which he describes this is most graphic. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body."
What a ceaseless, strenuous struggle! It is impossible to express in English the forcible language of the original. There are five pictures in succession. In the first, the idea is crowding enemies pressing in from every side, and yet not crushing him because the police of heaven cleared the way just wide enough for him to get through. The literal translation would be, "We are crowded on every side, but not crushed."
The second picture is that of one whose way seems utterly closed and yet he has pressed through; there is light enough to show him the next step. The Revised Version translates it, "Perplexed but not unto despair." Rotherham still more literally renders it, "Without a way, but not without a by-way."
The third figure is that of an enemy in hot pursuit while the divine Defender still stands by, and he is not left alone. Again we adopt the fine rendering of Rotherham, "Pursued but not abandoned."
The fourth figure is still more vivid and dramatic. The enemy has overtaken him, has struck him, has knocked him down. But it is not a fatal blow; he is able to rise again. It might be translated, "Overthrown but not overcome."
Once more the figure advances, and now it seems to be even death itself, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." But he does not die, for "the life also of Jesus" now comes to his aid and he lives in the life of another until his life work is done.
The reason so many fail in this experience of divine healing is because they expect to have it all without a struggle, and when the conflict 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 places are the very school of faith and character, and if we are to rise over mere human strength and prove the power of life divine in these mortal bodies, it must be through a process of conflict that may well be called the birth travail of a new life. It is the old figure of the bush that burned, but was not consumed, or of the Vision in the house of the Interpreter of the flame that would not expire, 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.
No, dear suffering child of God, you cannot fail if only you dare to believe, to stand fast and refuse to be overcome. --Tract.
