Melters

Josh 14:8 ""Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the LORD my God." NKJV

Anyone remember the name of the guy who went with Joshua and the others to spy out the land when the children of Israel were in the wilderness? Caleb. He is the one who is speaking in this verse. He and Joshua were the only guys out of twelve, who came back and told the people that God had given the land to them. They strongly believed that they should go up to possess it. The other ten were nay-sayers. The other ten doubted God. The other ten discouraged the people so that their hearts melted. The word for melt means to liquify, to vanish, to intimidate. And that is what happened. Moses sent these guys out to check out what they needed to do and the majority came back with a bad report. Just goes to show, the majority is not always right. The problem is, this melting thing. This intimidating thing. This discouraging thing. This negativity thing.

I know that I can go down that road sometimes. Something is placed in front of me, and I tend to think critically. When I do that the first thing that comes out of my mouth is: "Yes, but...". I need to stop that. I need to sit, listen, consider, weigh, talk about the good with the bad and not cause people's hearts to melt. I need to allow myself to dream a little. Joshua did. Caleb did. And when they knew that God was behind it, they said that they could not be stopped. The only thing that stopped them was unbelief.

The key is God. "But I wholly followed the LORD my God." Once Caleb knew that God was in this, he ran after it. He "wholly followed". He was filled with going after what God wanted. He did not waver. He did not hesitate. He was totally and uncompromisingly in favor of going into the land, even if there were giants there. Nothing could stand in God's way and because of this, nothing could stand in Israel's way...except the melters.

I don't want to be a melter. I just need to always ask: "Is God in this?" If He is, go after it full bore.