Senior Strength

Here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me.

Joshua 14:10-11

Caleb was a faithful man at age forty and had lost none of his vim and vigor forty-five years later. When he, Joshua, and ten other Israelite men had gone to spy out the Promised Land for Moses, only Caleb and Joshua had returned with a report based on faith: “Yes, there are obstacles, but God will give us victory,” they told the Israelites. As a result of Caleb’s faithfulness, Moses promised him an inheritance in the land. Caleb had to wait forty-five years to receive it.

After the unfaithful generation of Israelites died off in the wilderness, Israel entered the land to drive out the inhabitants. Now eighty-five years of age, Caleb was still raring to go: “It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive [the Anakim] out as the LORD said” (Joshua 14:12). Caleb felt as strong at eighty-five as he had at forty, and not just physically. His vision for fulfilling the promises of God had lost none of its clarity. How many people do you know like that? How about the one you see in the mirror each morning? If you need a fresh vision for “senior strength,” ask God for it today.

As we age, our physical strength may diminish, but our spiritual strength should be on the rise.

God never goes back on the man who stakes his all on Him.

WILLIAM BARCLAY