Live Caleb's Way

Numbers 13:30 (NLT)
30 But Caleb tried to encourage the people as they stood before Moses. "Let's go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!"

At the ripe old age of eighty-five, Caleb said to Joshua, 'the Lord has kept me alive just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day. And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb because he wholly followed the Lord' Joshua 14:10-14.

There was nothing half-baked or half-hearted about Caleb. His dream kept him alive; he got out of bed every morning intent on pursuing it. When God gives you a dream as big as a mountain, it will keep you going while others around you are giving up.

But be careful who you listen to. Don't let the critics discourage you by saying, 'You're too old.' The Bible says that like a palm tree, you can produce your greatest harvest of fruit in your final years Psalm 92:12-14. When the sun goes down the stars come out so you can shine brightest in the closing chapters of your life.

Barbara Klassen says: 'My great-great uncle lived to one hundred and six. He was healthy and spry and took joy in chauffeuring his less able-bodied senior friends around town. On his hundredth birthday his driver's licence came up for renewal. When he went to the licensing bureau a sceptical clerk said, 'You're a hundred years old! What do you need a driver's licence for?' My uncle, completely nonplussed, replied, 'Somebody has to drive the old folks around!' He continued to have a legal driver's licence for the next five years.'

Caleb said to Moses, "Let us go up at once and take possession [of the Promised Land] for we are well able" But the men with him gave a bad report saying "There we saw the giants and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight” Numbers 13:30-33.

Notice two attitudes at work in this story:

1. An attitude of doubt.
Ten of twelve spies came back saying, 'It can't be done!' But the majority isn't necessarily right. If God promises you something, it's yours, even if you're in the minority. The majority report terrified God's people; they got spiritual amnesia; they forgot the years of His supernatural provision.

They talked themselves into believing that Egypt was actually the land of milk and honey. '...you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness' Numbers 16:13. Incredible! Egypt was a land of straw and slavery, not milk and honey.

What was their problem? They allowed their surroundings to influence them more than God's promises. When that happens you dry up spiritually, begin to grumble and say stuff like, 'God may have worked miracles in the past, but He doesn't do it anymore.' As a result of their unbelief, not one of them entered the Promised Land except Joshua and Caleb.

2. An attitude of faith.
God said, 'But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land...and his descendants shall inherit it.' Numbers 14:24.

Contributor - Anonymous

So, which attitude do you (generally) have?

Have you given some thought about how you would like to start the new year 2011? .....with an attitude of doubt or will you much prefer Caleb's way, with faith in God the Father and Christ Jesus the Son of God.

May God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.