Have a Heart that God can Trust!

I love the writing of Max Lucado. I have used his stories numerous times in these letters, including just one month ago. Max is a New York Times best-selling Christian author, and was named “America’s Pastor” by Christianity Today magazine, plus Reader’s Digest in 2005 declared him as “The Best Preacher in America.” Everything Max writes is outstanding! Every morning, as part of my Bible time and prayer, I read several devotions, including Max’s “God is With You Every Day!” Here is Max’s selection for June 6 about Caleb, a great man of faith.

Marinate Your Mind

“It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said” (Joshua 14:12).

When Caleb was given his portion of the Promised Land, there was still work to be done, enemies to be driven out. In Joshua 14:6-12, Caleb spoke to Joshua about the struggles that lay ahead. Take a moment to read his words.

What name appears and reappears in Caleb’s words? The Lord. Nine references to the Lord! Who was on Caleb’s mind? He centered his mind on the Lord.

What about you? What emphasis would a transcript of your thoughts reveal? The Lord? Or the problem, the problem, the problem, the problem? The economy, the economy? The jerk, the jerk?

God’s people do not deny the presence of problems. Servants like Caleb aren’t naive, but they immerse their minds in God-thoughts.

Imagine two cooking bowls. One contains fresh, clean water. The second contains battery acid. Take an apple and cut it in half. Place one half of the apple in the bowl of clean water. Place the other half in the bowl of battery acid. Leave each in its respective bowl for five minutes, and then pull out the two halves. Which one will you want to eat?

Your mind is the apple. God is good water. Problems are battery acid. If you marinate your mind in your problems, they will eventually corrode and corrupt your thoughts. But thoughts of God will preserve and refresh your attitudes. Caleb was different because he soaked his mind in God.

Caleb was a man of great faith. Of their generation, only he and Joshua were allowed to enter the Promised Land. The rest missed out due to disobedience caused by their lack of faith. Caleb would not let anything or anyone keep him from the promise that the Lord made to him. Even though the Lord had promised everyone the land, the nation of Israel would not go in to possess it because they were terrified by the inhabitants, especially the giants.

Because of Caleb’s great faith in the Lord – trusting in the One who is unseen rather than what was seen all around him – the Lord gave him a personal promise. On the threshold of the nation of Israel’s time to move ahead into the Promised Land, Moses (who himself could not enter) declared this: “When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly’” (Deuteronomy 1:34-36). Even in his advanced age – 85 years old – Caleb was All In! Imua for Jesus!

Do you have a heart of great trust in the Lord? The amazing news is that, when you do, the Lord can trust you to accomplish great things. It won’t be you or me doing it in our own strength, but the Lord will anoint and equip us with His Holy Spirit “to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Let’s have a heart that the Lord can trust. Be faithful each day to worship and serve Him.

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This Sunday, April 26, we will be blessed and encouraged by the ministry of our Hawaii Assemblies of God District Superintendent, Klayton Ko. Please invite someone to join you in the building or online for the Live broadcast on either Facebook (Honolulu AG) or our YouTube channel (Honolulu Assembly of God). We Livestream every Sunday to both locations and would love to have you join us – either in person or online!

Coming Up: Our next Drive-Through Prayer outreach in the parking lot will be Saturday, May 2, from 11am-1pm.

Aloha ke Akua!