snippet o' the day

"I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land." ~Exodus 23:29-30

Exodus is quickly becoming a huge favorite of mine. I used to just think of it as a history/stories, right now God is revealing so much to me through the Israelites' journey & struggles - about His character, about our/my sinful, foolish nature, about how tender and how detailed God is in caring for us, that He outlines details, specifications, rules & stipulations, because even though He is the giant Creator-God of the universe, He cares about the condition of our hearts at every moment! That's huge.

Today the Holy Spirit wowed me with these two little verses - God is going to drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites to give His people the promised land. But He's not going to do it all at once, all in one fell swoop - because even though God Himself can do anything, His people are mortal, tiny, weak, far from all-powerful. So He chooses to work in a way that is best for His people; purging the enemies of God little by little, growing His children stronger and more faithful, little by little, until they can handle stewarding well the entire breadth of the promised land.

I am weak. small. sinful. frail. God knows this, He knows how much I can handle. Though my sins have already been forgiven & justified once for all by His blood, death, & sacrifice, I have not become holy, perfect, & flawless overnight; I am still a fleshly mortal living in a broken, fallen world. Because this world does not need a bunch of perfect people walking around, it needs lovers of God who are struggling well and learning to do life based on God's agenda & timing. He's working out all things in countless interwoven details and in even the most minute circumstances. Our human minds are just so limited in scope that we can't see how or what He's working - we can't even see what's behind our backs or what will happen to us in the next hour. He sees all of time, every person's story, and how they are all woven together in the most beautiful, intricate, delicate pattern!

He is working on us, each of us, day by day, little by little, with just exactly the right amount of what we can handle.

O blessed thought! He cares so much for us!

More on how God gives each of us just enough each day:

Exodus 16 (16-18)

Matthew 6:25-34

verse 34: "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

"He may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer, and ripen the receptive condition." ~George MacDonald