Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of lyrics sung by Steven Curtis Chapman in his song, His Strength Is Perfect, declaring that God will provide His strength to the weakened and faithful.
Highlight Passage Joshua 14: 11 [NKJV] …
10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. 11 As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.
… Caleb speaks out gratefully to Moses of God’s providence and His purpose for Caleb and his family.
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Highlight Context - Joshua 14: 6-12 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Caleb, at 85, inherits Hebron and the hill country
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Reference Passage #1 - Numbers 14: 20-24 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God honors Caleb’s faithfulness by prophesying that he will enter the Promised Land, even after 40 years of purging the disloyal and disobedient peoples.
Reference Passage #2 - Proverbs 3: 5-6 [NKJV] …
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will keep your paths straight.
… Caleb trusted God from the beginning and his faith was held all the years of his life as God’s people wandered in the wilderness grumbling in disobedience.
Reference Passage #3 - 2nd Corinthians 4: 16, 12: 9 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Apostle Paul declares that God’s grace will sustain His loyal servants, as it alway has with those who do not lose heart, … as did Caleb, … no matter our age or physical condition.
Reference Passage #4 - Philippians 3: 13-14 [NKJV] …
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
… Paul’s exhortation for the faithful to keep our eyes on the prize, no matter how old we might be.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, to illustrate here OBD teaching, wrote about a Dutch artist, Yoni Lefevre, who had a project called, “Grey Power,” where she had young children in the Netherlands depict their living grandparents in crayon drawings; and the kids pictured their Omas and Opas as vibrant and active in their older years. You can see one of the photos attached where one little 11 YO girl depicted her “Opa,” doing wild and crazy and fun things for his family.
And most certainly these observations mesh with the experience of my wife, who is Dutch. When her parents were living, they were both riding bicycles well into their eighties. And my mother-in-law would walk about 5 miles per day to go to the market to pick up fresh foods to prepare for the evening meals. And until recently, when fast-food restaurants and sedentary lifestyles have invaded Holland, you seldom ever saw an obese or out-of-shape elderly Hollander.
And Schuldt, in her ODB entry, makes the point of “grey power” by using Caleb as her biblical model of vibrant health and power into his older years; because God had prophesied that Caleb and his family would see the Promised Land after Caleb and Moses had faithfully spied the land and reported that it was God’s for the taking (see Numbers 14: 2-24). And so, over 40 years later, Caleb, at age 85, was gratefully allowed to enter the God’s Promised Land, and to inherit the mountain country as his chosen portion from God (see the highlight passages from Joshua 14: 6-12).
And we need to remember that as long as we trust in God, as did Caleb, He will lead us into our promised land … in glory; and HE will provide us with His strength and grace to do so (see Prov. 3: 5-6 and 2nd Cor. 4:16 and 12: 9 copied above).
So, as it says in Phil. 3: 13-14, let’s keep our eyes on the prize and move forward in Christ today, trusting that our Lord will lead us and strengthen us.
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, … I’m 72 today; but so grateful that You’ve given me the faculties and strength to move forward for Your glory. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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