Deuteronomy 7:22 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.

Here we have an extremely practical reason for gradual victory. There were other reasons, but this was one the Israelites could accept. The thing is, sudden victories are ultimately much harder to accept and profit from than gradual ones. Stories abound, for example, of people who win lotteries and their lives are destroyed. When you haven’t learned to handle a little money, a lot is totally overwhelming. The problem has a number of facets. One of them is the matter of assimilation, just mentioned, but another is the matter of valuing things that have come too easily. We have trouble grasping the worth of something when we haven’t worked for it. Again the illustration is financial, but this is a good reason for tying a child’s allowance to household chores. Without the emotional connection of work to income, they are all too likely to grow up accepting the welfare state as natural, and go through life trying to do as little as possible. That benefits no one! God delights to bless us, but He also knows what is best for us, far better than we possibly could ourselves. The point is to be as good a steward as possible of what He has already provided, not just financially but in every area, so that we will be trained and prepared for the more that He wants to pour out on us.

I was not raised with a connection between chores and allowance, and I didn’t raise my own children that way either, so in a way I’m speaking from negative experience here. I never saw a connection between my parents’ work and the income they received either, so financial gain has never been much of a goal for me. I’m afraid that has spilled over into my ministry as well, because “pavement pounding,” distributing tracts and the like, has never seemed to connect much with how many people come through our doors, much less how many commit their lives to Christ as Savior and Lord. The good side of that is that I haven’t been so tempted to give up because of the low rate of return! It all comes down to trusting obedience. I would be thrilled if the Lord decides I’m ready, and starts multiplying the church, but my obedience to Him is not dependent on that. I have planted a lot of seed, and I continue to pray that He will bring fruitfulness and harvest in His way in His timing in His locations (since the seed has certainly been far-flung) for His glory.

Father, thank You for not doing things as I have imagined. I remember praying for resurrection of that little boy who was murdered over 30 years ago, thinking how that would be such a powerful tool for drawing people into Your kingdom, but I can see now that had You done that, I would have been destroyed in the process, because I was far from ready for that sort of thing. Help me be faithful on a daily basis, seeking Your kingdom and Your righteousness and trusting You for the return. Thank You. Praise God!