Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled Saying Yes by Faith was written by Karen Huang.

When asked if I'd accept a new responsibility at work, I wanted to say no.

I thought of the challenges and felt inadequate to handle them.

But as I prayed and sought guidance from the Bible and other believers,

I realized God was calling me to say yes.

Through the scriptures, I was also reassured of his help.

So I accepted the task, but still with some dread. I see myself in the Israelites and the ten spies who recoiled from occupying Canaan in the Book of Numbers.

They too saw the difficulties, wondering how they could defeat the powerful people in the land

and subdue their fortified cities.

We seemed like grasshoppers, the spies said, and the Israelites grumbled, why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?

Only Caleb and Joshua remembered that God had already promised he'd give Canaan to his people.

They drew confidence from his promise, seeing the difficulties ahead in the light of God's

presence and help.

They'd face the difficulties with his power, protection, and resources, not their own. The task God gave me wasn't easy, but he helped me through it.

While we won't always be spared difficulties in his assignments, we can, like Caleb and Joshua,

face them knowing the Lord is with us.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Numbers chapter 13, verse 27, through chapter 14, verse 9. They gave Moses this account. We went into the land to which you sent us,

and it does flow with milk and honey. Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.

We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev. The Hittites, Jebusites,

and Amorites live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said,

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