Little by little {a lesson from Exodus} {repost}

 

by Sherri Graham of www.sherrigraham.com 

As we were doing our Bible reading one day last week, the Lord showed me something and I shared it with the kids.  I love how the history of the Israelites so much parallels our own lives…our bondage to sin…our Redeemer coming to bring us to freedom…gaining freedom from bondage only to complain about hardships…but finally reaching the Promised Land (one day).

We were reading in Exodus 23 where God is giving the Israelites instructions as well as encouragement that He will be with them.  Here is what we read:

I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.  I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.  I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. – Exodus 23:28-30 NASB

What struck me was how this parallels with our Christian life.  God does not show us all at one time, everything about ourselves that needs changed or worked on.  If He did, it would be so overwhelming.

What He does do, is show us little by little the areas of our lives that need attention.  Sins that need to be confessed and turned away from.  Attitudes that need an adjustment.  Desires that need to be aligned with His will.

And just as the verse above says that God will “drive them out little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land”, God does the same with us.  As we grow and change and become more fruitful, only then will He show us more of ourselves that need changed.

I am so thankful we serve a God who cares so much about us that He will take us by the hand and show us “little by little” what we need to work on.

I pray that I have encouraged you today to press on.  In the midst of so much uncertainty, we have a God who wants us to continue to grow and change…to become more like Him.  And He will show us the way…little by little!