Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 462 | Sometimes, God Works Things Out Little by Little

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462 | Sometimes, God Works Things Out Little by Little · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  God is in control.
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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
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  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
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  like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
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  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Living her life for Christ She's a happy girl.
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  Music.
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  She's a happy girl,
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  Sometimes it's hard to wait on God. Sometimes it's hard to obey God.
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  That innate desire for instant gratification, along with the desire to go our
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  own way, runs through us fiercely sometimes.
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  But God, in His infinite wisdom, knows what we can take and take care of at a given time.
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  He gives us His wisdom to protect us from pain and sorrow in this world.
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  He promises that He'll never put more upon us than we can bear,
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  that He'll provide for all of our needs, and that His timing is perfect.
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  Hold strong, my friends, to the path that God has set for you.
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  Join us in this episode of Woman at the Well Ministries podcast as Erica Close
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  teaches from Deuteronomy 7, focusing on verse 22.
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  And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little.
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  Thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
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  I am so excited to get to this chapter in the book of Deuteronomy,
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  because Deuteronomy 7, verse 22,
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  which Kim just read, is one of my absolute favorite verses, because I think
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  that it really speaks to the fact that there are so many ways that God works in our lives.
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  And sometimes He works in big ways that we see, and sometimes He works little by little.
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  So today, as we go through Deuteronomy chapter 7, we're going to see how the
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  Lord promised the Israelites he was going to work things out,
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  in this case, little by little.
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  So we're going to start reading in Deuteronomy chapter 7.
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  When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it,
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  and hast cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites and the Girgashites
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  and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites,
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  seven nations greater and mightier than thou.
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  And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them
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  and utterly destroy them.
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  Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show them mercy.
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  Neither shall thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
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  unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
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  For they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods.
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  So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly.
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  But thus shall ye deal with them. Ye shall destroy their altars and break down
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  their images and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire.
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  For thou art holy people unto the Lord thy God.
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  The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself.
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  Above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
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  The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more
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  in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people.
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  But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he
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  had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand,
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  and redeemed you out of the house of bondsmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
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  Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God,
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  which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments
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  to a thousand generations,
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  and repayeth them that hate him to their face to destroy them.
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  He will not be slack to him that hateth him. He will repay him to his face.
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  Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments,
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  which I command thee this day to do them.
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  Wherefore it shall come to pass.
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  If ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God
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  shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he swear unto thy fathers.
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  And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee.
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  He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land,
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  thy corn, thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kind,
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  and the flocks of thy sheep in the land which he swear unto thy fathers to give thee.
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  Thou shalt be blessed above all people.
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  There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your cattle,
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  and the Lord will take away from thee all sickness and put none of the evil
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  diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee,
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  but will lay them upon all that hate thee.
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  And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee.
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  Thine eyes shall have no pity upon them, neither shalt thou serve their gods,
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  for that will be a snare unto thee.
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  If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I,
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  how can I dispossess them?
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  Thou shalt not be afraid of them, but shalt well remember what the Lord thy
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  God did unto Pharaoh and unto all Egypt.
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  The great temptations which thine eye saw, and the signs, and the wonders,
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  and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought
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  thee out, so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
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  Moreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them until they that are
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  left and hide themselves from thee be destroyed.
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  Thou shalt not be afraid at them, for the Lord thy God is among you,
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  a mighty God and terrible.
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  And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little.
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  Thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
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  But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with
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  a mighty destruction until they be destroyed.
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  And he shall deliver their kings
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  into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven.
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  There shall no man be able to stand before thee until thou have destroyed them.
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  The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire.
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  Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee,
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  lest thou be snared therein, for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
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  Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it.
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  But thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.
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  Growing up is sometimes really hard to do.
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  We spend so much time trying to figure out who we are.
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  Sometimes we look at other people and try their styles and personalities on
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  for size to see if they fit.
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  But they rarely do. Sometimes we spend time just thinking, trying to find that
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  one part of ourselves that will tell us who we are.
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  And sometimes we ask other people who they think we are and what we are to be.
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  The wise among us, however, ask God who we are and what He wants us to be.
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  Chapter 7 of the book of Deuteronomy focuses on who God is and who the Israelites
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  are in light of God's lordship, kingship, protection, mercy, and care.
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  We are all created in the image and likeness of God, and we are all loved by him.
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  Therefore, we all have an identity in his eyes. We are his children.
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  We are his heirs. We are the apple of his eye.
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  As God speaks to the Israelites through Moses in this chapter,
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  we see that he is constantly reminding them of who he is that they might then
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  come to learn who they are meant to be.
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  Verses 1 through 5 of Deuteronomy chapter 7 teaches us a really important lesson.
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  While we are promised blessings, we are also warned not to get so caught up
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  in the blessing that we forget the giver of the blessing and his purposes for it.
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  The Israelites are about to enter into the promised land, and when they do so,
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  they will be conquering nations left and right.
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  These nations, the greater and mightier, will fall at the hand of the Israelites.
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  God says that he will smite them in verse 2.
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  And the Israelites, small as they are, will be victorious.
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  This victory comes with a warning, though. The victory itself isn't the prize, nor the people.
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  The Israelites were not to mix with these fallen nations.
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  They were not to marry into them. So while the victory was a wonderful blessing,
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  marrying into them would spell disaster for the Israelites.
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  If they married into these nations, it would draw the Israelites away from God,
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  and in doing so, the anger of God would be upon them.
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  Instead, the Israelites were.
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  Told to conquer the nations and destroy all that pointed to false gods.
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  The role of the Israelites was not to mix with these people,
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  but to show them who the one true God really was.
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  Now, the Israelites have heard all about the one true God, and they've heard
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  a bit about who they are in the light of God's presence in their lives.
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  We read in this chapter, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God.
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  The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself,
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  above all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
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  Don't you just love to hear that you're special?
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  Here, God is telling the Israelites that they are a holy nation and a special
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  people that God chose above all the other people on the earth.
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  This passage continues, and it speaks to the fact that God didn't choose the
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  Israelites because they were a huge nation. Indeed, they were the smallest.
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  God chose them because he loved them and because he had made a promise to their forefathers.
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  This God that loves them is a faithful, loving, merciful God who keeps his covenants forever.
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  The Israelites were loved by the God of the universe, though they were not worthy,
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  but they were loved because of God's infinite and amazing love.
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  So in light of this special designation and God's amazing love,
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  the Israelites were asked to obey God.
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  Notice how God does this? He, like all good parents, should makes sure that
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  his children understand just how much he loves them.
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  He makes sure that they understand that they are special. He makes sure that
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  they understand that there is no one more important than they are to him.
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  Then he asks for their obedience.
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  Before God gives them their marching orders, he makes sure they understand who
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  they are following and why he is worthy to be followed.
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  He doesn't ask for blind obedience, but true walking by faith.
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  God asks them to obey his commandments, that they might be multiplied and fruitful
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  in all ways with their children, their land, and their livestock.
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  God promised health to the Israelites, and he promised that they would be victorious
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  in battle. Can you see the connections that are here?
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  True success and bounty come from obedience to God's commands.
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  And while the blessings come from the hand of God, there are requirements that
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  need to be met on our part.
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  God gives us those commands because He loves us, and He knows that through obedience,
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  we will be protected from harm and we'll be walking in a place that God can bless.
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  Through his mercy, God knew that even the Israelites knew who they were following
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  and understood the blessings of obedience, but that they still might be afraid.
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  We're all afraid sometimes.
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  In verses 17 through 21 of chapter 7, we see the answer to this fear problem.
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  When we are afraid, we are to remember all that the Lord has done for us,
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  and in that remembrance, keep walking in faith.
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  This theme of remembrance is really common in Deuteronomy, and we see it here again.
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  When the Israelites came upon a nation that was great and powerful,
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  and they became afraid, God reminded them to remember all that he did when he
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  freed them from Pharaoh and brought them out of Egypt.
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  He asked them to remember all the amazing signs and wonders that they saw in the desert.
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  Lastly, he asked them to remember who he is.
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  He is the mighty God who, like a hornet, will swoop down and make them victorious against all their foes.
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  Therefore, there is no need to be afraid.
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  God is the one in control, and because of who he is, the battle is already won.
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  The last section of Deuteronomy 7 contains a verse that holds a truth that I
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  hope you will carry with you in the coming days.
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  And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little.
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  Thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase
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  upon thee. Did you catch that truth?
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  God told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 7.22 that while they were going to be
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  victorious, God was going to have them consume the nations little by little.
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  His desire was that his people would have victory, but that they would not be
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  overwhelmed by all that they gained. The battle was won.
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  The Israelites were going to be victorious, but God in his infinite wisdom was
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  going to do it in his time to protect the Israelites from their spoils.
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  When the Israelites were victorious in battle, they had a lot of work to do.
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  They had to go into each new nation and destroy the images of the other gods
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  and anything that could point them away from the one true God.
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  God knew the tasks ahead of them, and he made sure that they had the time that
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  they needed to complete those tasks.
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  There's a lot of information in Deuteronomy chapter 7.
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  Let's step back into the chapter. Deuteronomy 7 shows us that God loves us and cares for us.
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  1 Peter 2.9 tells us that you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
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  a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of
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  him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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  Just as the Israelites were special to God, we are special to him.
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  And because he loves us, he wants to protect us. We're both protected and blessed by our obedience.
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  Just as he didn't want the Israelites to intermarry with those nations they
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  conquered, God gives us commandments that protect us.
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  For example, we're not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers that our marriages
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  might have the greatest chance of success.
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  We read that in 2 Corinthians 6.14. We're protected from disease when we honor
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  God's desire for purity in our lives.
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  We can see that in Hebrews 13.4. And we're protected from financial loss when
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  we honor God by not gambling.
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  We see that in Proverbs 28.22.
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  God's desire for his children is that they live holy, happy,
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  healthy, and honorable lives.
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  Our last take-home message for today is that God's timing is perfect.
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  Just as he told the Israelites that he would conquer the foreign nations,
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  by little and little, sometimes God accomplishes his purposes in our lives little by little.
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  We all want things to happen quickly, and we all want things quickly.
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  Money, marriage, children, careers, a new house, whatever it may be.
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  But God promises that he will work things out, the things he wants us to have in his own time.
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  For as high as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
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  than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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  Isaiah 55.9.
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  God has a perfect plan for each of us. Our job is to seek Him and His plan for
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  our lives, and then follow Him in obedience.
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  Then, with open eyes, we can watch Him work.
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  Sometimes it's hard to wait on God. That innate desire for instant gratification
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  runs through us fiercely.
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  But God in his infinite wisdom knows what we can take at any given time.
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  He promises us in 1 Corinthians 10.13 that he'll never put more upon us than we can bear.
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  He promises us in Philippians 4.19 that he'll provide for all of our needs.
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  He promises us in Ecclesiastes 3.1 that His timing is perfect.
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  Sometimes things happen instantaneously for us, but more often than not,
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  God works things out by little and little in our lives.
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  Our job in times like this is to be patient and to keep on track the track that He has set for us.
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  Hold strong, my friends, to the path that God has set for you.
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  Don't be discouraged when it seems like nothing is happening.
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  Instead, hold fast to your faith and just keep going. You'll see what God is
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  doing, and you'll be blessed for your patience.
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  Remember that you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
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  store or through our website at WAV. www.watwm.org.
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  If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
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  a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
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  Woman at the Well Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving
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  our Heavenly Father, and it is through your loving and generous support that
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  Thank you to the gospel group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
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  Music.