“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.” —Numbers 33:55
This warning came to define the Israelites for generations. They failed to drive the inhabitants from the land by their refusal to trust in God’s provision. Those inhabitants who remained became a recurring stumbling block for the Israelites.
Compromise is difficult to contain.
I must examine every habit and activity that I brought with me from my life before salvation.
I must examine every habit and activity that I have picked up from the world since my salvation.
The things I refuse to eliminate will continue to live within me.
And what lives in me affects every area of my life.
Is this helping or hurting my progress in sanctification?
If it is not helping, it is hurting.
I must ask God for help in identifying and removing anything that is standing in His way.
“…Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” —Philippians 3:13-14
Anything I allow to remain will hinder my growth. So,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.”* —Psalms 139:23-24