Footholds

We're getting close to finishing up our Wednesday night study on the book of Joshua. Joshua was commissioned to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, to conquer the land, and to inhabit the land. As long as they were obedient to God, things went well, and eventually we are told that they took control of the land.

However, a phrase that occurs more than once left me thinking. The phrase is this: "but they failed to completely drive out the Canaanite from the land." Apparently, small pockets of the enemy were allowed to remain untouched in the land. The Israelite armies destroyed most of the enemy. They never got them all.

This would later come back to haunt them. They would later be influenced by the wickedness of their enemy - the very one they failed to purge from the land.

Our personal spiritual lives are similar. When we have a sin in our life that we mostly deal with, but fail to deal with completely, it will lay dormant in our heart or mind, but will eventually resurface and wreak havoc. Sin left unattended will eventually destroy us.

Have you dealt with the sin in your life? All of it? Don't make the same mistake that the Israelites made. Don't make the same mistake most of us make. Don't leave small pockets of sin in your life. Purge it, deal with it. "And do not give the devil a foothold." (Ephesians 4:27)