Anyway, I skipped around the Minor Prophets a bit, and kept getting the same message over and over again. God wants to redeem His people, and Israel/Judah/God's enemies will be defeated and punished for going past what He wanted them to do to bring His people back to Him. There are a lot of smaller nuggets of truth buried in these books, a lot of wonderful promises, a lot of horrific judgments. But I felt like I needed a different perspective, so I went back a little bit in the Old Testament (and in history) to the Book of Judges. And I found the bottom line--I found why the Israelites, and I, continued to fail over and over and over again.
The first chapter/section of Judges starts out pretty well. The Tribe of Judah drives out (almost) all the enemies in the territory that is set aside for them. Then Judges starts describing how the other tribes fared. And there is a common thread, "[they] didn't drive [the enemies] out of the land," but tried to subjugate them. God's people didn't strive for ultimate victory--they settled for mediocre success.
In my own life, why do I continue to struggle with the same issues time and time again? I used to think that it was just because those issues erupted from some personality flaws that were part of my human make-up. This passage makes me question that assumption.
I think it may have more to do with the fact that I don't keep pushing to destroy those things that cause me to fail. My "secret sins." My "weaknesses." I use my frailty as an excuse to fail, instead of allowing God to work through me to purge me of my shortcomings. I let Him in far enough to get me through, but not far enough to change me forever.
I take the quick win, and miss out on the ultimate victory.
I'm not going to list all my issues here ... for one, this is not the right forum for that kind of transparency; for another, my list is way too long for any of you to stay interested ...
But if you understand what I'm saying, and if you can agree with my premise, I challenge you to go one step further on my journey with me--delve deep, search yourself (like I will), and let God start the cleansing of your inner "land." The territory ultimately belongs to Him, He just wants us to live in it and prosper.
God, help me to give over my failures to You totally and completely, so You can keep me from falling again and again. Remind me daily that by not claiming total victory, I allow my enemies (sometimes including myself) to keep a foothold that can develop into a stronghold. I need You to bring complete change to replace my temporary successes. Thank You for not giving up on me.
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