Conquering the Land in 2012 and For All Time

I hadn’t really planned to develop a theme for this year on this blog. But God’s been impressing an idea on my heart and in my mind that I’d like to share with you.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the Israelites and one of their greatest mistakes. When God led them into the Promised Land, after 40 years of letting them wander in the wilderness, He told them to completely conquer the land. He didn’t say, “Settle among the current inhabitants and try to get along.” He said, “Take the land.”

At first, under Joshua’s leadership and with God’s might, the Israelites did this well. They made a few mistakes, but God corrected them, led them to repentance, and reminded them He was their Lord.

Over time, however, the Israelites became comfortable. They got tired of fighting, decided they had enough land and were willing to share and to live peacefully among the remaining inhabitants of the land.

God was not okay with this.

But He allowed it.

Eventually, the Israelites began to intermarry with and adopt the customs of these other people. They even started worshiping their gods.

God had warned them not to do this.

But they did anyway.

The result: the people the Israelites didn’t conquer, conquered the Israelites.

The lesson is relevant to Christians today.

When we are saved, we enter the Promised Land. We become citizens of God’s Kingdom. But we still have to conquer the land! Wrong attitudes, bad habits, and other enemies of our hearts must be eradicated. We can’t conquer them alone—we rely on God’s Spirit to help us with this. But we must ask Him for help. We must ask Him to help us identify the enemy within and then to destroy it—daily, hourly, sometimes moment by moment!

And we can’t become complacent, deciding we can be comfortable living with our more stubborn enemies—a little anger, a little greed, a touch of bitterness, envy, or apathy. What we choose not to conquer will turn around and conquer us. We must fight with diligence.

A few verses have come to mind as I’ve been thinking about this. If we focus on these when enemies arise, God’s Spirit can use them to help us in this fight:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” –Galatians 5:22-23

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” –Philippians 4:8-9

“Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” –1 Peter 1:13-16

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.” –2 Peter 1:5-9

Looking back over last year’s What Really Matters resolutions, I know that those weren’t only for 2011, but for always. They will stay on my refrigerator even though it’s now 2012. Likewise, this year’s theme must become in increasing measure a lifetime habit to develop now. Whenever an ugly attitude or enemy of the heart attacks, we all must prayerfully turn these over to God that His Spirit can replace them with His fruitful qualities.

Father, we don’t know what 2012 holds for us, but we do know what you want for us—always! You want to make us more like You: holy, effective, productive, clean. Please keep our minds alert and fully sober, filled with excellent and praiseworthy thoughts, that our hope, faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love will grow and that our hearts will be full of Christ’s peace. Thank You for Your cleansing work. Help us to conquer "this land"—our minds and hearts—in Jesus’ name. Amen.