About two years after leaving Egypt, 12 scouts were sent to explore the Promised Land. After 40 days, the scouts returned with their report to Moses, Aaron, and the children of Israel. Joshua, the lead scout, provided a positive report highlighting the Promised Land as fertile and offering plenty of grazing land for the animals. The scouts paraded unusual fruits, including a cluster of grapes a few feet long with grapes the size of plums. The people were impressed! Caleb, another scout, agreed with Joshua’s positive report.

At the same time, the remaining ten scouts disagreed with Joshua. Their negative report exaggerated the strength of their enemy and the defenses of their cities. We saw giants on the streets! they said. The people of Israel became agitated. Quiet murmuring grew louder. Shouts of despair arose from the tumultuous crowd.

Then, one man stepped up to the platform. “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30). Caleb had a faith-filled, action-oriented, positive response. He was whole-hearted in his support of God.

To be whole-hearted for God means to go as much as we can in the direction of God’s law. It means to obey God with our whole heart. A component of Caleb’s whole-hearted obedience to God was his positive attitude. Gerald Flurry explains it this way in The Former Prophets: “[Joshua and Caleb] were willing to do whatever God asked of them, and eager to do God’s Work! That is the spirit God is trying to build in us! We should approach our part in God’s Work with joy!” We should obey God with joy—a positive attitude.

We can gather a few lessons by contrasting Israel’s negative attitude with Caleb’s positive attitude toward the command to take the Promised Land. Applying these lessons will help us to become more whole-hearted for God.

1. Believe God.

A negative attitude can lead to trusting ourselves. Satan wants to overwhelm us with all the reasons why we should not obey God. He knows that if he can get us in a negative attitude, we will trust in ourselves instead of God.

The negative report of the faithless scouts continued: “But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we” (verse 31). The faithless scouts’ negative attitude was fueled by fear. They murmured, doubted God, focused on their fears and looked to their own strength. Their negative attitude paralyzed them.

A positive attitude can lead to trusting God. Caleb’s optimism was fueled by faith in God. Caleb was positive it was God’s will to go into the Promised Land. And he whole-heartedly believed God. He also witnessed and remembered God’s miracles along the way. He saw the miraculous, punishing plagues on the Egyptians while the Israelites remained unscathed. God dried up the Red Sea for Israel to walk across. Then, the waters consumed the Egyptian army. God provided water from a rock and manna from heaven. God gave them victory in battle. Caleb knew the “stronger” people in the Promised Land were nothing for the Almighty God he served. He trusted God with his whole heart. He focused on the overwhelming positivity of God’s command to march forward. Thus, he retained a positive attitude in whole-hearted obedience to God.

We can do the same! Humanly, it is easy to let our first response be negative. Satan wants that. And he will work to bring negative thoughts into our minds. But with God’s help, we can reject those thoughts. If we really think about it, we could write countless pages of the miracles God has performed in our lives. Each one is ammunition against Satan’s attacks. A positive response will lead us to trust God. We can make it a goal to see the positive in anything, big or small. Any task, challenge or difficulty has a positive side to it when we look at it the way God wants us to. If God said it, it will come to pass. And if God wants us to take action, He will back us up the whole way. We can set our hearts to be positive and trust God.

2. Take positive action.

A negative attitude can lead to negative actions. Verses 32-33 show how the ten faithless scouts continued to scare the children of Israel. The land is full of diseases and plagues. And by the way, all the men we saw were very tall. In fact, we saw giants! We were the size of grasshoppers next to them! According to the ten scouts, these giants were as tall as a five-story building.

When we have a negative attitude, we tend to exaggerate or manifest difficulties in front of us. Our tendency is to run in the opposite direction of God’s way. Sometimes those challenges are real—the scouts did see “giants,” but in reality, they were likely around 9 feet tall—nowhere near a five-story building.

Numbers 14:1-5 shows that the Israelites wanted to return to slavery in Egypt rather than enter this land. That seems crazy to us! We can think, I would never do that! But it is easy to get negative and discouraged like the children of Israel in smaller matters: We think, I can’t do it! I am too tired to run! I am going to die before the end of P.E. class! The trash bag is too heavy! Looks like I don’t have to take it out. There are too many dishes! I will never finish! Joshua and Caleb even tried to encourage the people. But the people responded by threatening to stone them (verse 10)! Once we become negative, one negative action can lead to a chain of negative action.

A positive attitude can lead to positive actions. When we have a positive attitude, no giant is too big for us. No obstacle can stand in God’s way. Caleb was positive God would defeat the giants. He was eager to do what was right. And he did it with a positive attitude. We can be more whole-hearted for God one positive action at a time. When our teachers give us assignments, we can smile and say, Thank you! When a project seems like too much work, it is a perfect opportunity to be positive and trust God to help us through it. In P.E. class, we can do our best in all the sports, not just our favorite one. If we lose, we can be positive in defeat. And if we win, it is an opportunity to uplift the other team. We can be encouraging to our friends and siblings. When asked to do something, we can say, Yes, sir! or Yes Ma’am! with a smile. Let me do that at once!

3. Seize further opportunities.

A negative attitude closes opportunities. Numbers 14:1-5 describes the Israelites’ complaining: Why didn’t God let us die in Egypt? Or why doesn’t God let us die here in the wilderness? We are going to die in battle. Our enemies will kill our wives and children!

Verses 22-35 contain God’s response. The Israelites refused to take the Promised Land. They disobeyed God. They were not whole-hearted for God (Numbers 32:11). God condemned them to die in the wilderness, never seeing the Promised Land. He sentenced them to wander the wilderness for a total of 40 years. Their negative attitude, lack of faith, and negative actions led to God closing the Promised Land to them.

A positive attitude opens opportunities. Verse 24 says, “But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Caleb stood out to God for obeying Him with his whole heart. One way he did it was through his positive attitude.

God rewards those who are positive. God said He would bring Caleb to the Promised Land and give him an inheritance for his family. Caleb remained positive and steadfast in the 45 years it took to see that promise. He was given the very mountains where the giants dwelled. In fact, he received the city of Kirjatharba, named after Arba, one of the great men among the giants (Joshua 14:15). The more familiar name of this city is Hebron, where David reigned at first.

Caleb was excited to carry out God’s command and drive out the giants, even at 85 years old (verses 10-12). And God loved his attitude. Being a positive person makes us more whole-hearted for God, and God can open more opportunities to an attitude like that.

The Israelites trusted in themselves to the point that their fear overwhelmed them. Caleb firmly stood by his belief that God would bring him to the Promised Land. The Israelites wanted to return to slavery in Egypt.

Caleb was eager to go into the Promised Land. God determined that the Israelites who complained would not enter the Promised Land. Caleb’s positive attitude cemented his entrance into the Promised Land. Next time you are presented with a task, challenge or difficulty, remember Caleb’s positive response: “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it!”