Looking for grapes

Well, I haven't been a very good blogger. It has been quite some time since I updated this particular blog. But my wife gave me a great idea the other day, and I actually incorporated it into one of my sermons this month. We were talking about remaining positive in disappointing times and one of my keys for doing that was to only do what God told you to do, and nothing more. Numbers 13 tells the story of the 12 spies that were sent into the Promised Land to spy it out. Moses told them to check out a number of things. He told them to see what kind of people lived there, whether they were strong or weak, how many of them there were, what is the land like, good or bad. How do they live, in tents or in strong holds, again about the land, is it fat or lean. And then he told them to bring him back some grapes because it was at the time of the first harvesting of grapes when they were going in. They did all of the above, but they also noticed that there giants in the land. The bible says they found a cluster of grapes that had to be placed between a pole and carried by two men. Now that is a big cluster of grapes. But do you think they mentioned that when they got back? NO. The only thing they could talk about was the giants who were there. The bible also tells us that they already knew that the giants would be there, and had been told that God would take care of them. Their panicked talking about giants instead of showing off the grapes they brought back caused their brethren to lose hope, and cost the older generation their opportunity to go into the Promised Land. If God sends you for grapes, don't come back talking about the giants.