Joshua 14.10-12 “Now
then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years
since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the
wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong
today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle
now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that
day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were
large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he
said.” – Caleb the Kenizzite
In life, there is a thing called drive. Drive, if I had to define it, is the will to continue and to
go after what one wants. Drive is someone’s get
up and go – their will. Drive is the ability to see life as it is and make
life what you want. Caleb, one of the twelve original spies into Canaan, had
drive.
In his former days, Caleb was sent on a mission into the
land of Canaan and came back with the report: Let’s go! This land is ours for the taking! Caleb had the ability
to see the power and presence of God in his daily life. Caleb saw every day as
a day of challenge, of expectation of what the Lord was going to expose him to,
and how the Lord was going to see him through. Caleb said: “I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on
which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children
forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly… (Joshua
14.8-9) Caleb lived with expectation.
So, two things I glean from today’s reading: drive and wholehearted belief.
Caleb wasn’t a fair-weather believer – he was a whole-heart, let’s get this
done believer. Caleb had drive coupled with unquenchable, wholehearted belief.
God was HIS God, and there was no stopping his God. Caleb had spent the last
forty-five years helping others and now he was ready to help himself to what he
believed was rightfully his – Moses gave it to him.
Drive and belief. Belief is a component of drive, and
drive is a component of belief. Caleb had both and saw them as his calling to
do, and then receive, what his God had given him.
When I first started out in my business, a man told me:
Paul, this is your business and you can
build your brand any way you choose. Go for it! That resonated with me. I
think God was calling me to do what I do with my whole heart and depend on Him
to see it through. Caleb said, “Now give
me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard
then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified,
but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.” I choose
to believe likewise – and the Lord helping me, I will do – with my whole heart.
Father in Heaven,
You have called all of Your children to trust You, and follow You with their
whole heart – no sense in half-hearted belief. Half-belief is no belief. Lord,
may the memory of Caleb and his drive and wholeheartedness guide me this day.
You were with him and he knew it. You are with me and I know it. May I live
like Caleb, and bring glory and honor to Your Name – amen.
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