Joshua was only one of two people who entered the promise land from the first generation of Jews who left Egypt in the Exodus. The rest died in the wilderness because of their hardened hearts. I believe the reason is because Joshua relentlessly stayed in the presence of God.

Exodus 33:11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

You just could not pull Joshua away from the presence of God. It appears that Joshua was with Moses when God would speak to Moses face to face in the tent of meeting and Joshua was so enamored with God that he stayed in God’s presence even after Moses left the tent. I believe this is why Joshua gave a positive report on the promise land and the others did not when they were sent in to spy out the land before taking it.

Numbers 14:36 As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, 37 even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

While the others spies saw the giants and all the obstacles in their way preventing them from taking the land that God had promised, Joshua believed that the same God he had met in the tent was the same God who would hand over the land to Israel, giants or no giants.

This constant abiding in the presence of God had an effect on Joshua; he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Numbers 27:18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;

Because of Joshua’s abiding spirit, God promoted him to the point that he led the Jews into the promise land. Not even Moses was given that privilege.

Deuteronomy 31:7 Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “ Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance.

Joshua’s name means “God saves”. Joshua learned the meaning of his name, privately in the presence of God in the tent of meeting to the point that he could not help but live it out publically when God called his name.

How much or how little we abide in God’s presence will determine our ability to enter our own promise land when God calls our name, even when it is filled with the giants of fear, depression, failure and addiction.