Today I have a lot on my mind. One of those things is
yesterday’s sermon. Larry taught us about Caleb. Now we have been studying the
book of Joshua for a while now but he is honing in on Caleb right now. Back in
the book of Numbers, God said that Caleb had a “Different spirit” because Caleb
followed God “whole-heartedly”. God also promised land to Caleb and his tribe.
Specific land, special land. He promised Caleb Hebron. Hebron was where Abraham
and Sara and Rebecca and family were all buried. Hebron was God’s land; sacred
land. Well if we fast forward to the book of Joshua, when it came time to
divide up the land, Joshua and the priest were going to leave it up to God by
drawing lots. Well, all this time later (45 years to be exact), Caleb reminded
Joshua of the Lord’s promise to Caleb. So Caleb and his tribe received Hebron.
Caleb defeated all the people who were defiling the land there and he lived
there all his days. But still in the book of Joshua, Caleb is described as a
man who followed God wholeheartedly.
Caleb certainly must have trusted God! He patiently waited
for 45years to receive the land God had promised him. He was 40 years old when
he was promised. That means he was 85 years old when the promise was fulfilled.
Scripture also said that Caleb remained physically strong and able to battle
even though he was at such an advanced age. Also, as a side note, Joshua lived
to be120 years old. So he spent 35 years in his promised land.
So the question posed to us in the sermon was: What does it
mean to have a “different spirit” and how can we achieve having a “different
spirit”? Caleb had a different spirit because he trusted and followed God
completely. Everything that Caleb did involved God’s council. We know this
because in the scripture Caleb says “The Lord sent me…; followed the Lord my
God…;”. Caleb references the Lord in
most of his actions when he is reminding Joshua of the promise. I know that
scripture tells us to pray about everything. God wants to be involved in our
lives, even the silly little things. So, how can we have a different spirit? We
can involve God in everything in our lives. We can pray without ceasing. We can
ask God to help guide all of our decisions. We can praise God in every
situation. We can shift our focus to God and away from our problems, those
people we don’t like and the times in our lives that we just can’t seem to stop
thinking on.
I know that the things above are hard to do but we can start
small. We can start by praying constantly. First thing in the morning we can
thank God for waking us up and ask him to guide our day. We can enjoy some time
in God’s word while we are eating our breakfast or drinking our coffee in the
morning. We can pray for our country or just any situation that we see in the
news. We can pray when things pop in our minds. We can pray for correction,
comfort, peace when things get out of hand. We can spend our day talking to
God. We can make time to be in God’s Word, even if it is just a couple of
scriptures at a time. We can meditate on those scriptures. We can buy the Bible
on audiobook or a Christian bible study on audio book to listen to during a
long commute. There are so many ways we can stay plugged into God during our
day. God provides the opportunities, you have to take them.
I know one thing is for sure. It may sound like I have it
all figured out but you know what, I really and truly don’t. I don’t have that
different spirit yet. I know I am really striving to have that kind of spirit.
I am not in God’s word as much as I should be. I don’t pray nearly as much as I
need to. I don’t listen to God’s voice like I should. I am so far away but I do
know that a journey begins with one step. Just one step, then another, then
another and so on and eventually you make it to your destination.
