Numbers 13:11-15: in context

As Israel nears the promised land, Moses sends twelve men, one from each tribe, to spy it out. The passage names them, tribe by tribe: Gaddi of Manasseh, Ammiel of Dan, Sethur of Asher, and the rest. Twelve men, chosen leaders, sent on the same mission, to see the same land. Yet when they returned, their reports would diverge sharply: ten would come back in fear, seeing only giants and impossibility, while two, Caleb and Joshua, would come back in faith, seeing a good land God would give.

The twelve spies were sent on the identical mission, saw the identical land, faced the identical obstacles. And yet they came back with opposite reports. Ten saw the fortified cities and the strong inhabitants and concluded it was hopeless: we are not able; we seemed like grasshoppers. Two saw the same cities and the same inhabitants and concluded, with faith, that God would give them the land: let us go up at once, for we are well able. The difference was not in what they saw but in the hearts through which they saw it. The same circumstances were met by ten with fear and by two with faith. This shows how much depends on the eyes through which we see our circumstances. Faith and fear can look at the very same situation, the same obstacles, the same difficulties, and see utterly different things. Fear sees the giants and concludes it is hopeless; faith sees the same giants and remembers that God is greater. The circumstances do not determine the response; the heart does. Ten looked through the eyes of fear and saw only impossibility; two looked through the eyes of faith and saw a land God would give. And it made all the difference, for the faithless report kept a generation out of the land. This searches how we look at our own circumstances. When we face obstacles and difficulties, do we see them, as the ten did, through the eyes of fear, concluding that they are too great and the situation hopeless? Or do we see them, as Caleb and Joshua did, through the eyes of faith, remembering that God is with us and greater than what we face? Do not fear the people of the land, Caleb and Joshua said, for the LORD is with us. The obstacles were real; but faith saw past them to God. We walk by faith, Paul says, not by sight. The same circumstances can be met with faith or fear, depending on the heart through which we see them; and we are called to look at our difficulties, as the two faithful spies did, through the eyes of faith in the God who is with us and greater than what we face, rather than through the eyes of fear that see only impossibility.

When I face obstacles and difficulties, do I see them, like the ten spies, through the eyes of fear, concluding they are too great and my situation hopeless, or through the eyes of faith, like Caleb and Joshua, who saw the same land and the same giants but remembered that God was with them and greater, and can I ask God to let me meet my circumstances with faith rather than fear, looking past the obstacles to him?