Day 1

Deuteronomy 5-7

LITTLE BY LITTLE

You will be unable to destroy them at once – Deut. 7:22

            I like to get things over with.  Dig in; buckle up; hunker down – whatever!  Let’s just get it done and over with.  We will never “be over with” our enemy in this life.  The idea that we can once for all deal with the Devil is fantasy.  God’s plan is little by little.  I heard someone say, “Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch.”  That’s the way it is with our battles.  We don’t get victory all at once.

            Every time we claim new territory for God we have a new fight on our hands.  The enemy doesn’t want to give it up; he always wants it back.  Shamma, one of David’s mighty men, stood in a bean patch one day when everyone else ran away.  He defeated the Philistines by himself, because he wouldn’t yield an inch to the enemies of God.  God is saying here “Don’t run from a battle.  This won’t be the last.”  The fight itself is good for us.  We are to put on our armor every day expecting a new fight.

            When does the peace come?  After the war is won!  After many battles!  When we lay our burdens down and hear Jesus say, “Well done faithful servant” the peace will come.  The church has been moving toward God’s predetermined victory since Pentecost.  The campaign has taken us far from Jerusalem.  We still have captives to rescue.  Jesus said the gates of Hell shall not prevail against us.

            We must understand that our battles come because of our cause.  It is the cause of Christ.  It is a crusade for the souls of men.  We fight because Jesus commanded us to storm the gates of Hell.  The fighting will not cease until time is no more.  If we interpret our battle as a private war, we fight for the wrong purpose.  When the conflict is about us, we fail.  We go, because the Gospel has not yet reached every tribe and tongue.  We fight because it is our work.  The old song says, “Well work ‘til Jesus comes.” Then the war is done.

Let’s hear one for the bean patch!