Grasshopper Mentality

You could look at Britain and think, “Christianity has lost it”. Only 1% of 18-24 year olds are now Anglican. In the last 20 years, the number of atheists has grown from 10% to 26%.

What impact can we have? Can a grasshopper fight a giant?

Around 3400 years ago, God told his people he was giving them the Promised land. Twelve spies went to scout it out.

Two said, “We can certainly do it…. The Lord is with us”.

Ten said, “We’ve seen the giants that live there; we are like grasshoppers in their eyes and in our own eyes.”

Which voice do we listen to? The voice that says we are mere grasshoppers or the one that says, “The Lord is with us, we can do it.”

Imagine if the first Christians had dismissed themselves as grasshoppers. They didn’t, not even in front of Nero. They set a pattern followed by Christians sharing their faith through the centuries who met opposition and incomprehension yet trusted God was greater. Wesley and Whitefield faced a culture summed up by Carlyle as, "Stomach well alive, soul extinct" - sounds like ours! But they didn’t fall for the grasshopper mentality; they believed God, revival came and society changed.

There is only one context where we are like grasshoppers - compared to our God, who sits above the circle of the earth, its inhabitants like grasshoppers… who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.(Isaiah 40:22)

Even though we are so very little, God has set his love on us. He doesn’t see us as grasshoppers and neither should we.

“We can certainly do it…. The Lord is with us”.