Article January 3, 1983 Issue

A healing perspective

RENÉ H. SCHUBERT

"God is love,"^{I John 4:8.} we are assured. Yet this truth becomes evident only as we let God guide every phase of our lives. Human reasoning, by its very nature, is based on a limited outlook and tends to distrust God's plan of abundant good for His children.

This was illustrated in the attitude of the spies sent out by Moses. When they returned from a forty-day search throughout the land of Canaan they told him, "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it."^{Num. 13:27.} (Among other fruits, they had brought back a cluster of grapes so heavy that two men were necessary to carry it!) In view of this promising report, did the children of Israel go and possess the land of Canaan then, as they apparently could have done?

According to the spies, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, there were snags: "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."^{Num. 13:33.} How aptly these words portray what may be, at times, our response to suggestions of ill health, difficult human relationships, insufficient supply—whether these beliefs of life in matter appear in our own or another's experience! Contrast this with the stand taken by Caleb and Joshua. They were confident that the people could conquer the land. Because of his faith and courage, Caleb later obtained and enjoyed his inheritance, and Joshua led his people into the Promised Land.