Little by little

Fellowship with others in God's Kingdom is such a blessing. A friend spontaneously wrote to me yesterday, without having heard the last Devotional on repentance whereby I had said on changing direction into following God's Will, God immediately has his arms outstretched to receive us. My friend gave me further food for thought when she wrote, to this effect, that even though we receive complete forgiveness and eternal life from God, we still need to face the wrongs we have done and the negative results. I would add that this is done with mercy, gentleness and love. In the Old Testament we get a clue as to God's methods in eliminating our wrongdoings, in the way He directs the Israelites in eliminating their enemies: "The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you" (Deuteronomy 7:22). In reality that implies that if the enemies were eliminated in one blow, wild beasts would sweep in to the Israelites' newly acquired land before they had enough time to occupy and farm the land for themselves. Similarly, God deliberately paces the revealing and elimination of our struggles and character flaws, 'little by little', so that we do not get disheartened and that we have time to slowly strengthen and grow into His image.