READING: Joshua 11-14
“So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day.”
Joshua 14:12
I hope when I’m 85 years old that I’m as eager and as energetic as Caleb was. For 45 years he had waited to take the land he knew God intended for His people to have in the first place. He along with Joshua had been outvoted by the other spies more than four decades earlier, but he still trusted God to keep His word. He was “still as strong today as [he] was in the day that Moses sent [him]” (Josh. 14:11). His strength was just as mighty as it was then, and he was ready to take the land. In fact, he wanted to take the land of the Anakim – the giants – who had most alarmed the spies so many years before.
Caleb knew the Lord would be with him, and he would “drive them out just as the Lord said” (Josh. 14:12). What I love about Caleb is that he wanted the Lord to use him mightily, but he made sure to give the Lord credit for any victory he would achieve. He was not sitting on the sidelines, nor was he thinking about retiring from the battle as he aged. He was ready to give all that he had even as he trusted the Lord with all that he was.
That’s what I want to be: never thinking about pulling back from the battle, but also never thinking that any victory I gain is because of me. I want to push hard into the land God has already given, but not push ahead of the Lord. I want to be able to say in years to come, “I wholly followed the Lord my God.”
ACTION STEPS:
- Accept whatever challenge God lays before you today.
- Trust God, even if no one else is willing to follow Him fully.
PRAYER: “God, give me the hill country. I don’t want to sit.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Joshua 15-18
