Bible Reading: Joshua 14:8-15
Key Verse: Verse 12 - “Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.”
Key Words: I shall be able to drive them out
When you hear the word determination, who do you think of? Several people come to mind, but one Biblical character who stands out to me is Caleb. We read in Joshua 14:12a, “Now therefore give me this mountain.” Caleb had waited forty years for his inheritance from God. He is now eighty-five and more determined than ever to claim the land God had promised him.
Caleb was determined that his life would end well. When we think of Caleb, we should think of the mighty Amazon. Boisterous in its youth, this river is a settled, invincible, and steady flow in its old age.
The Amazon starts three miles high in the snow-swept Andes of Peru. At the source, the river is only seventy miles from the Pacific Ocean, but it travels nearly four thousand miles across the width of the continent toward the Atlantic. In the beginning a tiny trickle tumbles down a mountain and begins a long, eventful journey to the sea. The stream takes its time and as it wends its way, it draws the water of two hundred other streams and brooks into its embrace until it is a full- fledged river. Then it churns through mountain passes, bursts with explosive force into the green wall of the jungle below, and becomes an inland sea, draining nearly half of South America – an area equal to two-thirds of the United States. At the mouth the banks stand ninety miles apart. When the Amazon reaches the end of its adventurous journey, it refuses to die. The power and drive of the river are so great that it floods the ocean with fresh water up to one hundred miles offshore. Indeed, the current can still be seen two hundred miles out to sea.
Caleb was like the Amazon. At the ripe age of eighty-five, he refused to consider for a moment that he had reached beyond the hoary-headed age and was now well stricken in years. “Well-stricken in nothing,” Caleb would say. “Me? I’m ready to tackle a mountain. Me retire? Retire and play golf? Not me! Give me an untamed mountain. Up to now I’ve just been training. Now I’m ready to start.”
Caleb understood that a winner never quits and a quitter never wins.
We must be determined not to give up in the face of difficult days when as time passes we become more and more the minority. We must occupy until Jesus comes. Be determined to be salt and light until then.
What to do:
✞Be determined to live for God. A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.
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