This Monday MEMO is a bit different. Today, I want you to do something for me. Take out a piece of paper and a writing instrument. I’ll wait for you to find something.

Now…put down the top one or two problems that are keeping you from accomplishing your God-given task. You probably won’t have to think too hard. They are probably before you every day you try to lead and serve. By the way…if you want, you can include problems that keep you from being the person the Lord intends for you to be. Just one or two items.

Now, hold onto that paper while I tell you what God showed me as I was reading through Numbers in the Old Testament. To be honest, some of these passages are rather tedious. Counting men who could fight. Rules and laws for living lives that please the Lord. Sacrifices and gifts to be given to atone for sin and shortcomings. Many of them become repetitive. So, I often ask the Holy Spirit to teach me something through these passages.

I began to think of those Israelites who left Egypt and wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. By many accounts they numbered over two million people. That’s huge. As I figure it, there were probably 400,000 family units throughout the twelve tribes. And God gave Moses instructions for them to make sacrifices.

“…This is the special gift you must present to the Lord as your daily burnt offering. You must offer two one-year-old male lambs with no defects. Sacrifice one lamb in the morning and the other in the evening.” Numbers 28:3-4 NLT

As I read this, each family was to make this sacrifice. If so, four hundred thousand lambs in the morning. Four hundred thousand lambs in the evening. Eight hundred thousand lambs a day. In
five days…four million lambs sacrificed. And this was to go on and on, week after week, month after month, year after year. Where did all these sacrificial lambs come from?

Someone calculated what it would take to feed these two million people. The basic food needed each day was over four million pounds worth. To bring that much food would have taken three trains of boxcars, each over a mile long. And for water…it would have required 11 million gallons each day and a freight train with tanker cars over 1,800 miles long…each day.

Of course, they didn’t have trains!

I could go on and on detailing the magnitude of the challenges these people had and what it would take to meet their needs. Impossible. But…God!

Now…grab that piece of paper you wrote on a few moments ago. Look at the items you wrote down. I’ll wait…

My question to you…how big is that problem of yours?

Over and over throughout the Bible we hear the God saying:

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

The question then is this: Do you trust God or not? Do you believe Him or not? Is He the same yesterday, today, and forever?

The writer of Hebrews has good instructions for us as we trod the often difficult path of life the Lord has for us.

…let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT

OK…one more time…look at those things you wrote down. Then look to Jesus and place those problems before Him.

He has been waiting for you.