When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, “You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.” (Joshua 13:1, NIV 1984).
My Musings – None of us are getting any younger. Some are more “advanced in years” than others. But just like you cannot judge a book by its cover, you cannot always judge a person’s spiritual maturity (the “book”) by how old they look on the outside (the “cover”). Some look back on their lives and see that “there are still very large areas of land [the old man] to be taken over.” Areas of their life that they have either not yielded to God, or that they have allowed to lay fallow (undeveloped or inactive, but potentially useful).
Then there are the others. “I [Caleb], 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.’ 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.” (Joshua 14:8-9, 10–11, NIV 1984). In his life, he covered a lot of ground. Both physically (“I am today, eighty-five years old!“) and spiritually (“[he] followed the LORD [his] God wholeheartedly.”).
My Advice – What would you like your spiritual inheritance to be? “Very large areas of land [not] taken over,” or “the [hill country] on which your feet have walked?” It’s all up to you. You need not wait until you’re eighty-five years old. Some take over the “land” at an early age and then “stand firm” until the end. But even if you are eighty-five years old (or older), it’s not too late to start “following the LORD [your] God wholeheartedly.”
The Brew Is A Musing 