An Overcoming Christian part 5

Joshua 14:10-14
And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. [11] As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. [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. [13] And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. [14] Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.

The last letter in Caleb’s name is B.

Bitterness

I do not believe that Caleb was bitter towards God or the people. I think there are lots of reasons why he could have been bitter but he chose the path of trusting God.

Think with me of some of the things that happened to Caleb. He was on the minority side when he said “we are well able to overcome.” Remember it was 2 against 10, then the odds became even less when the whole congregation was against Caleb, Joshua, Moses and Aaron, 4 against a multitude. If all those people against him were not enough, the people wanted to stone him. In today’s language we call it murder.

God promised Caleb land because he “wholly followed the Lord”, but he waited 45 years to receive it. The promise was given when he was 40 and he waited until he was 85. We complain and grumble if we have to wait 10 minutes in line.

Caleb traveled a different path than most. He traveled down the path of trusting instead of wallowing down the trail of bitterness. He knew the path of trusting would be narrow and probably bumpy. He also knew his Traveling Companion. The Lord will never lead us down a path that He is not walking right beside us.

Caleb’s life is a great encouragement to those who read it. He lived a long and prosperous life. He had the body of a 40 year old when he was 85. God protected him every step of the way.

How are you doing today? Are you allowing bitterness to build up in your heart? Give it to God.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. I Peter 5:7

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: Ephesians 4:31

Caleb did not let any of these things get him down: Circumstances, Attitudes, Loneliness, Exasperation or Bitterness. We need to wholly follow God. Thank Him for everything He allows in our lives. Remember God does not make mistakes but opportunities for us to grow closer to Him.

Be an overcomer!!

Have a great day.
Donna

An Overcoming Christian part 4

Numbers 14:9-10 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. [10] But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

Continuing with the acrostic for Caleb’s name we come to E.

Exasperation
1 a: to excite the anger of: enrage b: to cause irritation or annoyance to
2 obsolete: to make more grievous: aggravate

Take a minute to picture what is going on as the Israelites are traveling to the promise land. I repeat, “the promised land”, the land promised by God. God always keeps His promises.

Caleb knew God was faithful and would keep the promise. Caleb said “we are well able to overcome”. Apparently the Israelites did not have the same faith as Caleb. The Israelites did not realize they were traveling to the “promised land”.

Caleb pleaded with them not to rebel against the Lord. He told them not to fear the people; they are like bread for us. We can eat them up or in other words defeat them with no problems because God is with us. Caleb was trying to comfort and encourage the Israelites. I’m sure Caleb was getting exasperated with the people. The people would not listen, they wanted to stone Caleb. The reason probably was, if we kill him we won’t have to listen to him.

The end of verse 10 says, “the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.” God intervened just before the congregation stoned Caleb. Adam Clarke said, “This timely appearance of the Divine glory prevented these faithful servants of God from being stoned to death by this base and treacherous multitude.” Talk about divine protection.

Are there circumstances in your life that exasperate you? Do you trust God for an answer to the situation? The answer does not always come right away.

What about us, are we more like Caleb or the Israelites. I hate to admit it, but more times than not I’m more like the Israelites. God has taught me a few things that I would like to share.

We need to wait on the Lord.
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Psalm 27:14

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. Psalm 130:5

We need to trust Him with our all.
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. Psalm 62:8

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Psalm 18:2


Don’t let your exasperation (anger) control you.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Psalm 37:8

Use Caleb as your example and speak gently.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. Proverbs 15:1

Keep your anger in check.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Proverbs 16:32

Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:9

We need to put off some things.
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Colossians 3:8

When we put something off we need to put something on.
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:24

Can you see why I think Caleb is a super hero? He had complete control, but the control came from knowing Whom He served.

Have a great day.
Donna

An Overcoming Christian part 3

Numbers 14:1-2 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. [2] And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

The third letter in Caleb’s name is L.

Loneliness

Caleb may have been lonely in his decision. Caleb and Joshua were the only 2 who stood for right. Two out of twelve is 16%, which means that 84% of the spies were on the other side. This also means 84% had a bigger influence on the people.

Imagine, all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried. It was not a small group but all the people except Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb. Four against the whole congregation is not good odds, the percentage is even smaller than 16%. Talk about loneliness.

I do not think Caleb thought about pleasing the people. His goal was to please God. Caleb knew that with God on his side he was on the winning team.

How about you, do you get lonely in your Christian walk? Do you try to follow God’s word while others are doing “their own thing”? Are you a people pleaser instead of God pleaser?


For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10

Here are some encouraging verses to help us remember that Jesus is always with us and will help us though the lonely periods of our life.


Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12

And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Exoldus 33:14

…: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5
When you are walking with Jesus you are never alone.

Have a great day.
Donna

An Overcoming Christian part 2

Numbers 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

I so want to be “an overcoming” Christian, don’t you? As I continue with the acrostic of Caleb's name we come to the letter A.

Attitude

Think of the attitudes in the story of the twelve spies. The spies had negative attitudes, while Caleb had a good attitude. Caleb had to overcome the bad attitude of others. The attitudes of others can affect us if we let it. The Bible tells us that Caleb had another spirit.

Caleb was not like the other spies. He kept his mind on God. John Gill says Caleb’s spirit was “ a spirit of faith, and of the fear of the Lord, of might and courage, of truth and faithfulness; believing in the promise of God”

We need to have “another spirit” like Caleb. Ephesians 5:18 says, “be filled with the Spirit.”

My attitude is not always what it should be. I need to let the Spirit take over and control my attitude, which will only happen if I yield to the Spirit’s leading. Is it easy? No, but it is not impossible. With God all things are possible even controlling our attitudes.

I need to keep my mind focused on God. When my mind is focused on God, I tune out the things around me to be tuned into God.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3
We need to have the attitude of Jesus. Remember the “what would Jesus do” (WWJD) craze. Well, we do need to be conscious of what Jesus would do and say in certain situations. We need to keep our attitude in check.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:5

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching? ~Dennis and Wendy Mannering

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. ~Winston Churchill

I want to have an attitude like Caleb’s. How about you?

Have a great day.
Donna

An Overcoming Christian part 1

Numbers 13:30-32 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. [31] But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. [32] And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

One of my favorite Bible characters is Caleb. Caleb is an Old Testament super hero. He was one of the twelve spies that Moses sent out to inspect the promised land. When the spies came back they reported to Moses.

Caleb did not whine and complain and bring back an evil report like the other spies, but stood up, endangering his life and said “we are well able to overcome it”. I call Caleb the “overcomer”. Caleb had a lot to overcome but he knew Who he was following. We all need to be overcomers.

I made an acrostic out of Caleb’s name with some of the things he had to overcome.

Circumstances

Think of the circumstances that Caleb had to overcome. The people in the land were strong and the cities were walled (protected). The worst thing was the people spoke of stoning Caleb. (Num 14:10)

What are some of the circumstances that you need to overcome. Are you living with an unsaved spouse? Is your workplace mostly non Christians? Are you having problems with your children? Are you having problems with ___? Fill in the blank.

Caleb conquered the circumstances. He did not wallow in them but looked for the solution. Caleb told the people “…the Lord is with us, fear them not.” (Num 14:9) Caleb knew who fought for him. The same God who fought for Caleb fights for us.

The key to overcoming any circumstance is prayer. I’m sure Caleb prayed for the situation. No matter what situation you find yourself in pray. Pray without ceasing. I Thessalonians 5:17
We need to get on top of the circumstances with the Lord’s help and guidance. Pray and ask the Lord to give you the grace to endure the circumstance until He sends the solution.

Have a great day.
Donna