Let’s do something different today. Take out a piece of paper and a writing instrument. Got it?

Now…write 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. Or, what problems are keeping you from being all God wants you to be?

Now, hold onto that paper while I tell you what God showed me as I was reading through Numbers in the Old Testament. 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 forty years in the wilderness. By many accounts, they numbered over two million people. That’s huge. As I figure it, there were probably four hundred thousand 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

So, each family was to make this sacrifice. Four hundred thousand lambs in the morning. Four hundred thousand lambs in the evening. That’s eight hundred thousand lambs a day. And in five days…that’s 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 primary 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 eleven million gallons each day and a freight train with tanker cars over eighteen hundred miles long… each day.

Of course, they didn’t have trains!

I could go on and on detailing the magnitude of these people’s challenges 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. My question to you…how big is your problem…for God?

Over and over throughout God’s Word, we hear God saying:

Is there 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.

God’s best,