Deuteronomy 1:35–36: “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the LORD.”

February 16th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Of all the old generation that God swore would not enter the Promised Land, only Caleb, and Joshua as we know from Numbers, was allowed to enter in and inherit land. Caleb, of the original twelve spies sent to spy out the land of Canaan, was about 120 years old when they finally entered in. What was his secret to success? Where did he go right, where everyone else went wrong? Scripture tells us clearly it was “because he wholly followed the LORD” (Deut. 1:36). We are told he completely followed God, holding nothing back. We might say in today’s slang that Caleb was all in! Or to say it in New Testament terms, Caleb was a disciple who was not afraid of the cost of discipleship.

It has been correctly said that disciples are made not born. A new believer once said to me, “Serving God sounds easy, but it’s not so easy living it out.” The German Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book The Cost of Discipleship, wrote against believing in a cheap grace. He argues that grace was very costly to God Almighty, and, therefore, discipleship is very costly to us. Being a true disciple of Jesus Christ means a total life-style change, one that will continue to cost us everything for the rest of our lives.

This is the radical, genuine discipleship God calls every person to when we decide to follow Him. It is at first a sobering choice that continues on every day after that to be a challenging one. But the rewards here are substantial, and the rewards in eternity are beyond even our own imaginations. So what does this discipleship cost? The gift of God’s grace is free but we must surrender everything. How do we surrender? We pray and give every thing to God. When does it happen? Every day we give back to God the things that we tried to again take a hold of the day before.

“LORD, we give you our lives. It is not our lives but Yours.”